Freight - The Wonderful World of Freight

By: Frank Dunne

Are you thinking of shipping something, or does the idea of becoming a broker or shipper attract you? Well, let me tell you, the shipping world is as exciting, if not more so than it ever was right now!

Freight is a word applied to describe the transfer of goods and is normally a commercial operation. Items are ordinarily set up into various shipment classes before they are shipped.

There are several considerations here:

The type of item being sent, i.e. a kettle would usually be put into the family 'household goods'.

- Numbers and sizes of objects to be shipped.

- How long the item for sending will be in transit.

- Cargos are generally tagged as household goods, express, parcel, and freight Goods.

Household goods will normally include artistic creations, pieces of furniture, or similar things.

The majority of personal and small business items, including envelopes are classed as "overnight express" or "express letter items". Usually weighing less than a few pounds they almost always get delivered in the carriers packaging. The shipper determines the level of shipping at the appropriate time.

Air transport is the normal choice for "Express" goods, at least for some portion of the journey. Even the humble envelope can arrive overnight or could take days.

Bigger items like small boxes are counted as parcel or ground dispatches. These dispatches are seldom over 100 pounds, with no single piece of the item weighing more than about 70 pounds. Shipments are usually boxed, sometimes in the shippers packaging and occasionally in carrier-provided packaging.

The majority of business-to-consumer shipments are parcels. Normally they travel by rail and road, and seldom by air. Depending again on the service levels chosen, delivery times will vary, but most loads will travel 550-750 miles per day.

Beyond HHG, express, and parcel items, movements are termed freight shipments:

1. This is called LTL or Less-than-truckload:

The requirements for packaging and size are very similar for air freight and for LTL cargo. Generally the Less-than-truckload LTL carriers use a 28 foot container. Air freight shipments typically need to move at much faster speeds than 500 miles per day. Air shipments may be booked directly with the carriers or through brokers or online marketplace services. Air shipments move faster than standard LTL.

2. TL - Truckload freight:

For larger loads of 7,500Kg and more, it makes more sense to dedicate one full truck rather than to share as with LTL loads. Truckloads (TL), are catagorised in the US as being above that weight of 15,000 pounds.

80,000 pounds is the maximum weight that a truckload TL can be legally. That is the weight including the weight of the tractor trailer. Huge savings in shipment costs can be made by large companies by taking advantage of TL shipping, and it is very common to see these nowdays, and it appears to be increasing. Under the current U.S. truck pricing model, adding more to a load costs nothing more.

Consolidating orders onto the truck using a Transportation management system is one way to increase the load within the limits. Here the optimal combination of orders and stops can be used to fill out the truck. Also constructing the trucks with lighter materials can bring great savings. When sending cargo, it is exceedingly crucial to know about pricing, claims, and insurance.

Calculating Freight costing:

Truckload (TL) carriers usually charge a rate per mile. The rate varies depending on the distance, geographic location of the delivery, items being shipped, equipment type required, and service times required. TL shipments usually receive a variety of surcharges very similar to those described for LTL shipments above. In the TL market, there are thousands more small carriers than in the LTL market; so the use of transportation intermediaries or brokers is extremely common.

More dense items such as steel and machinery have low classifications such as Class 50 thru 85. Fragile or bulky items fall into freight classes 125 to 500, and pay higher shipment costs.

Another cost-saving method is facilitating pickups or deliveries at the carriers terminals. By doing this, shippers avoid any accessorial fees that might normally be charged for liftgate, residential pickup/delivery, inside pickup/delivery or notifications/appointments.

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Shipping and freight is an interesting world and is full of possibility for those who are interested in a real challange. Author Frank Dunne has a resource-packed site filled with freight information and useful stuff at freight-information.com

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