Shipment Consolidation: Easy Way to Ship Consignment

With demand rising in the e-commerce supply chains, shippers have been facing challenges to deliver the goods on time. With more frequent orders and shorter lead times and on top of it less product to fill a truck or a container, the shipper has to come up with a strategic solution.  Shippers are looking at methods that can improve the speed and are cost-effective. 
The right solution: Freight consolidation.
To meet the demands of the burgeoning market, shippers have come up with a strategy where they seek a partnership to consolidate their freight, by combining with other shippers who have less-than-container loads resulting in one container, rather than shipping small deliveries.

Let’s know freight consolidation

The name is easily understandable; freight consolidation is a method wherein shippers combine multiple LCL shipments together heading to the same destination. The shippers can actually consolidate their own similar freight or can coordinate with other shippers to work it out.

Benefits of freight consolidation

Minimize the shipping costs: The most visible benefit is lower costs. Even though the shipment fills up only part of a container, the shipper still covers the fuel surcharge, driver’s wage and other costs to full capacity by combining other LCL shipments. 

Reduced carbon emission: When using lesser ships, it means lower fuel costs and lower fuel emissions for a shipper. So by consolidating multiple small freights the shipper can effectively reduce the carbon footprint.

Smooth transition time: Now with a combined or consolidated freight the multiple shipments that are stacked in one container will move ahead to their final destination, without any in-between stops and transit. With this, the shipper saves time and moves consignment faster and right on time.

Minimize freight damages: Shipments that are properly packed, are less likely to be damaged. A general LCL freight on a traditional route will be moved often as there will be multiple loading and unloading points. However, when a shipment is consolidated with other shipments to the same destination, then the in-between transshipments are eliminated.

Increased transparency: With 20cube transparency transactions, you can easily track your shipment using the unique tracking code using the smart portal, MyHub. Just login and add your shipment number into the search field, this will provide you with the exact location of the shipment and the estimated time when it will be reaching the final destination.

Reduced dock congestion: Generally, an overcrowded dock is always an unpleasant site and creates hurdles like late shipment and increased detention times. But with freight consolidation, only fewer trucks will be needed to move the shipment with easy movement.  This highly benefits the drivers who are available to move the shipments.
Are there any challenges faced in freight consolidation, yes, there are a few:

Complex communication

With many LCL consolidated together, it requires accurate communication to all the stakeholders. It takes effort to inform all the people who are involved in the transaction, the carriers and the shippers have to be on the same understanding. Sometimes misinformation may lead to confusion and loss of time. Planning is very crucial in freight consolidation.

Short lead times

In case, freight consolidation is not planned correctly, it may lead to problems. Today, the consumer demand is at an all-time high, but the lead time is at an all-time low, creating a huge challenge to freight consolidation. Hence, the shipper and carriers have to plan and organize a freight consolidation plan that will work and get the job done.
20Cube has been working well with freight management. We thoroughly understand the requirements of the customer and use our network plan accordingly to consolidate the LCL shipments that are cost-effective and offer quick movement.