One way or another, it’s important for large, medium, and small businesses from all over the world to stay competitive. One way many are accomplishing this is by offering free or low cost shipping to their customers, especially when they spend more than a specific amount of money. But shipping is never really free. Someone needs to pay for it. Just like an individual customer needs to fill up their online shopping cart to a certain point to receive their shipping discount, business need to fill up their own trucks and shipping containers in order get the best value for larger cargo shipments. Consolidating large volume shipments is one way they accomplish this.

What is Consolidation?

Consolidation allows various businesses to combine their smaller shipments in order to create a large shipment and lower overall costs. Some consolidation happens within a vehicle, where the vehicle stops to pick up several packages to eventually fill the vehicle. The consolidation typically done by freight forwarders happens outside of a vehicle at a  facility where shipments are sorted based on the region they are being delivered to.

Filling Trucks and Containers

Even with large volume shipments, an individual company doesn’t always have enough to send out  to fill a truck or container. Having access to good consolidation services will keep their shipments organized, speed up the delivery of their products, and save them money.

Full Truckload vs. Less Than Truckload

With full truckload service, the  shipper contracts the entire truck for point to point service. Pricing is generally based on how many miles the truck travels, so the greatest value comes when the truck is full. Carriers that offer Less Than Truckload services base their pricing on the weight and volume of the freight. These carriers are more likely to stop are various locations along the way in order to fill up the truck, resulting in slower overall delivery.

Full Container Load vs Less Than Container Load

Container loads apply to ocean shipments, and most of the time every effort is made to ship full containers. These are usually 8 ft X 8 ft in width and height, and can range from 20 to 55 feet long. When cargo shipments are not large enough to fill a container, the need to be consolidated and separated at various ports.

As a freight forwarder, JMLDeliverit gives businesses a place to consolidate freight so that containers and trucks can move on to do their deliveries with a higher level of efficiency, and at a lower price to businesses and ultimately individual customers. JML offers freight forwarding and consolidation services from our warehouse in the Miami area as well as our facility in the British Virgin Islands. Shipping from the British Virgin Islands offers various tax advantages for companies, and Miami’s central location makes it a perfect hub for sending packages throughout the U.S. and Latin America.