Sea Cargo is one of the most sought after options of shipping and has been around for centuries, with various trading routes that have only improved in the modern world. Within the world of sea freight for commercial cargo or personal effects, crates and container shipping is used to safely transport goods on freight ships. When you take aluminium or steel container shipping, FCL and LCL shipping are the choices when sending shipments overseas. But is the difference between FCL and LCL shipping? Let’s look into the FCL and LCL shipments, and how they operate.
FCL Container Shipping
Full Container Load (FCL) is a container shipping option where a container is exclusively used for a single shipment and the container is not shared with other cargo shipments, and the costs are borne by one party. Even if the container isn’t enough completely filled to the brim with cargo, the shipping party can choose to still opt for it. There are many reasons why they would choose to send as FCL shipments, such as;
- FCL shipping costs less than LCL. The cost of unit per freight is higher with LCL than FCL, and importing fees need to be paid regardless of the size of your shipment or choice of container shipment
- FCL shipments offer a faster lead time/delivery. As a FCL shipment include cargo that is meant for a single party and not shared, even if it stops at various ports, they do not need to be opened and reworked, and delays can be avoided.
- The freight forwarder will be able to bring a container to your desired address for you to load the goods onto the container yourself
LCL Shipping
Less than Container Load (LCL) is another shipping term when various cargo shipments share the same container as well as the container shipping costs. There are many reasons why LCL container shipping is chosen, such as;
- LCL Shipping is usually chosen when the there aren’t enough goods to fill up and entire container
- LCL shipping can allow you to lower your warehousing costs, that is, in the event you are stocking a warehouse until you are able to accommodate a FCL shipment, thus lowering your warehousing/inventory costs
However, it should be noted that the costs are higher for LCL, including insurance costs, as well as there may take longer than FCL. Also, you will also have to pay us at Transco Cargo, the freight forwarder to send a truck or to have it dropped off at our locations, which are located through Victoria and other states of Australia. Get the Transco Cargo Pick up and Drop Off Locations by visiting our website.