FCL, LCL and groupage
Home — FCL, LCL and groupage
Whether to buy a whole container or a share of one — and the four ways that can be arranged.
A container, or a corner of one
Ocean freight is sold two ways. Take the whole box and it is sealed at your premises and opened at the consignee’s: nobody handles the cargo in between. Take a share and your pallets travel with other people’s, which is cheaper for a small consignment and costs you handling and time at both ends.
Those two can also be mixed. A single shipper sending to several consignees, or several shippers sending to one, each has an arrangement of its own — and picking the right one is usually worth more than haggling over the rate.
How the container is bought
The first two are the common ones. The mixed pair exist because cargo rarely has one sender and one receiver.
FCL
Full container load
What it is
The whole container is yours, origin to destination.
Handling
Sealed at your location, opened at the consignee’s.
Moves
Container yard to container yard.
Trade-off
Secure, faster, least handling — you pay for the space whether you fill it or not.
Best for
Large shipments that can fill a container.
LCL
Less than container load
What it is
Your cargo shares a container with other shippers’.
Handling
Consolidated at a CFS at origin, deconsolidated at one at destination.
Moves
Shipper → CFS → container → CFS → consignee.
Trade-off
Cost effective and flexible — more handling and a longer transit.
Best for
Small shipments that do not need a full container.
FCL/LCL
Full at origin, split at destination
What it is
Sent as a full container, broken down on arrival.
Handling
Sealed at origin; deconsolidated at the destination CFS.
Moves
One shipper out, several consignees in.
Trade-off
FCL safety on the water, distribution at the far end.
Best for
One shipper with several consignees at destination.
LCL/FCL
Consolidated at origin, full at destination
What it is
Several shippers’ cargo consolidated into one container for one receiver.
Handling
Consolidated at the origin CFS; discharged as a full container.
Moves
Several shippers out, one consignee in.
Trade-off
Cost efficient at origin, full-container delivery at destination.
Best for
Multiple suppliers feeding one large receiver.
What happens to the box,
The difference between the two is not the vessel. It is how many times the cargo is touched.
FCL — five stops
01
Pick up
Cargo is loaded into the container at the shipper’s premises.
02
Loading
The full container is loaded at the origin port.
03
Ocean transport
Sealed, and shipped to the destination port.
04
Discharge
The full container is discharged, still sealed.
05
Delivery
Delivered to the consignee’s location and opened there.
LCL — six stops, and two of them are shared with other people’s cargo
01
Pick up
Cargo collected from the shipper.
02
CFS, origin
Checked, sorted and consolidated with other shipments.
03
Loading
One container is stuffed with several shippers’ cargo.
04
Ocean transport
Shipped to the destination port.
05
CFS, destination
De-stuffed and deconsolidated into separate shipments.
06
Delivery
Each consignee receives their own cargo.
CY and CFS are not the same place
Two facilities, two jobs. Knowing which one your cargo goes through explains most of what appears on the invoice.
CY — container yard
A port or terminal area where full containers are received, stored and handled before and after vessel operations. The container stays sealed and intact. Container-level handling.
CFS — container freight station
A facility where cargo is consolidated, stuffed, de-stuffed and deconsolidated, mainly for LCL. Individual shipments are handled here. Cargo-level handling.
FCL moves CY to CY
Nobody opens the box between your loading bay and the consignee’s. Fewer hands, fewer chances of damage or a miscount.
LCL passes through both CFSs
Shipper to CFS, into a shared container, out at a CFS at the far end, then on to the consignee. Every one of those is a handling charge.
Why LCL takes longer
A shared container waits for enough cargo to fill it, and the deconsolidation queue at destination is not yours to control.
Why the LCL rate is not the whole cost
Origin and destination CFS charges, documentation and handling are quoted separately. Compare the landed total, not the sea freight.
The crossover point moves
When LCL stops being the cheaper answer
Past roughly half a 20-footer, price both and compare
Where the two meet depends on the lane, the season and what the CFS charges at each end — there is no fixed cubic metre at which LCL becomes FCL. Once a consignment is large enough to be a real question, ask for both on the same quotation and compare the landed figure, not the sea freight line.
FCL, LCL and groupage — the one-page version
The whole guide on a single sheet, sized for WhatsApp and for A4. Ours to give away.