LCL, or ‘Less than a Container Load’, allows for saving of cost for freight as cargo is shipped at lower rates. Shipping smaller volumes also means that you will need to rent a small storage space to house your goods. With this, there are lower risks of unsold inventory collecting dust in slow months and in general a speedier turnover of inventory.
All these above mentioned factors have an impact on financial results. And ultimately it will allow businesses to save money and thus increase profit.
As mentioned briefly above, LCL is a sound shipping method when the alternative is having to save up enough goods to fill up a container. When businesses rely on time critical shipments, it is impossible to just wait around until a container is filled up with enough goods.
Were these businesses to do this, their clients would simply have to move on to their competitors due to the fact that their production would slow down too much. Luckily, LCL consolidation allows these businesses to ship their goods with time-critical deadlines without any delay.
On demand
Nowadays, with producers of goods leaning towards an on-demand approach, shipping methods need to be flexible. There are challenges that come with this. One of those is time, or rather, speediness of delivery. Once clients order, a supplier should be ready to deliver as quickly as possible.
Product life cycles are shorter than before due to an increase in technical innovation. Cost of warehouses and storage space are rising, and they are less available in busy urban areas. LCL is an ideal and flexible solution to this challenge that fits perfectly in the modern on-demand approach to production of goods.
Sharing is caring
We all learned that sharing is caring. This parental wisdom does however not stop at sharing a snack with your friend or sibling. The motto is still very much relevant when it comes to moving goods across the oceans to fulfill the supply line for a consumer product for instance.
It is said that containers are at an over overcapacity, which means that every day countless amounts of containers are being shipped overseas with only half full loads inside of them. This is very wasteful when you consider that many shipments can easily be combined through the use of LCL shipping!
In times when every business should consider their CO2 footprint, and be mindful of the CO2 footprint of their supply chains, one can see quickly how wasteful this practice is, and how it’s not eco-friendly at all.
Sharing container space contributes to a lower CO2 footprint as it means that containers travel less empty kilometers. With well established container specifications for size, and weight it will be easy to calculate the amount of CO2 saved by this shipping method!
Road congestion
Many large and sprawling urban areas face the same issue of road congestion on their main traffic arteries. The shipping industry can however offer a solution through LCL shipping. By combining loads in one container, less trucks or lorries would be needed to transport the same amount of goods.
