FCL Shipping in practical terms
FCL shipping is a type of ocean freight and the term FCL refers to full container load. Shipping FCL does not mean you need to have enough cargo to fill an entire container. You may ship a partially filled container as FCL. The benefit is that your cargo will not share a container with other shipments, like it would happen if you picked as a less than a container load (LCL). It is common for exporters and importers to ship their cargo in a half full or partially full containers, due to time constraints, deadlines or to protect their cargo from contamination of other cargos. Often a partially full container is less expensive to ship because there will be none of the consolidating and handling fees associated with loose cargo, as in an LCL shipment. The rule of thumb is, if you are shipping 6 standard pallets in a 20ft container, 12 standard pallets or more in a 40ft container, it might be cost effective to ship your cargo as an FCL shipment, full container load, rather than LCL shipment, less than a container load.
Most FCL shipments are door-to-port, but it is possible to ship FCL port-to-port, port-to-door, or door-to-door. In the export and import business, the shipper is usually responsible for the door-to-port and the consignee is responsible from the port of destination to his warehouse. However, Incoterms will determine how obligations and financial responsibilities are divided between the exporter and importer.
LCL Shipping in practical terms
An LCL service is like a bus service with only two stops, one at origin and one at destination. A marine container replaces the bus and the passengers are the cargoes of multiple shippers.
The forwarder will receive or collect individual consignments from individual customers, all with dimensions of less than a full container, and packed for LCL shipping. The forwarder typically has a fixed schedule, with for example weekly departures, and the LCL shipments are booked against a fixed date. All the shipments must be in the possession of the freight forwarder a few day before departure, allowing for time to plan and consolidate them into a container and transport the container to the seaport where the forwarder will hand it over to a shipping line. Once the shipping line has received the container with the LCL shipments, they are responsible for the international sea transportation to the destination, against a contract of carriage between the shipping line and the freight forwarder.
At destination, the freight forwarder will collect the container from the seaport and bring it to a warehouse where it is un-stuffed or de-consolidated into individual LCL shipments. The shipments can then be collected by the consignees (receivers), or the forwarder can deliver them directly to the final receiver.
