Six Benefits of Freight Consolidation
Freight consolidation offers LTL shippers several logistical benefits that help them get their deliveries to their destinations and onto retail shelves or delivered to food service operations. Unlike Atlanta Bonded Warehouse, not every logistics and warehousing operation offers less-than-truckload (LTL) freight consolidation. So before finalizing LTL transportation for your next order, consider the advantages of this type of freight movement.
What is Freight Consolidation?
Freight consolidation is a shipment solution that consolidates and coordinates several customers’ shipments into the same trailer for the same destination. Individual orders for the same destination are combined to form one larger drop. For less than truckload shippers, retailers are placing smaller orders which conversely requires fulfillment more frequently. Truckload (TL) is not a cost effective solution. LTL consolidation can be the answer.
Retailers seek to minimize their inventories, reduce their storage and carrying costs, reduce out-of-date stock, but, at the same time, keep the shelves stocked. They are increasingly reliant on suppliers to refill their orders on a more frequent basis (vendor managed inventory or VMI) and with shorter lead times. LTL freight consolidation aims to streamline this process so suppliers can meet increasing demands, retailers receive timely deliveries, and retail customers find the products they want.
The Six Benefits of Freight Consolidation
1. Minimized Shipping Costs
Freight consolidation allows your company to share the cost of transportation with multiple shipments heading to the same destination. If your less-than-truckload order ships TL, the entire carrier cost would be shouldered by your company.
Freight consolidation gives shippers the opportunity to ship LTL orders at a lower cost by pro-rating the cost of that stop across all of the shippers to the same destination. The shipper pays for their “pro-rata” share of the cost of that drop, usually by weight or weight adjusted cube.
2. Quicker Delivery Times
When goods are transported via freight consolidation, they usually arrive more quickly than other types of deliveries, if the carrier is not trapping freight. This means the carrier is shipping per a schedule and not waiting to achieve a pre-calculated minimum weight before releasing the truck for delivery. Colonial Cartage ships per a schedule.
As the carrier builds a consistent volume of orders for freight consolidation, growing a dependable delivery schedule becomes not only more realistic, but also increasingly necessary. Driving consistent volumes of orders to the receivers facilitates relationship-building with the receiving teams, which helps immeasurably when working on last minute appointment changes, issues with inbound freight, or compliance questions.
3. Secure Deliveries
Along with more dependable delivery times, consolidated shipments are handled less along their routes. Unlike traditional LTL shipments, which may be heading to different destinations and could be sorted and loaded onto different trucks at other LTL terminals, freight consolidation means orders are bound for the same destination, which means fewer to no transfers, therefore, fewer opportunities for products to get damaged or misplaced as they are loaded off and on to different trailers.
A trusted freight consolidation provider is also experienced and reliable, so your goods arrive on time and in good condition.
4. Sustainable Shipping
In the U.S. in 2021, medium and heavy-duty trucks emitted approximately 417 million metric tonnes of greenhouse gasses. In comparison, in 2019, 179 million metric tons of carbon emissions were released by commercial passenger flights departing from the United States. So, larger trucks are contributing almost double the greenhouse gas emissions as the commercial aviation industry.
Governments and industries are actively looking for ways to reduce emissions. National and state-wide regulations are in place in an attempt to limit energy waste and companies across the country are looking to do their part by improving their own sustainability. Freight consolidation helps. Reducing the number of trucks on the road through more efficient shipping reduces gas and diesel use, driving down CO2 emissions.
So, choosing a reliable LTL freight consolidation provider reduces your carbon footprint.
5. Consistent Deliveries
Freight consolidation programs of scale will deliver your orders efficiently and on schedule. Once you have established the frequency of your customers’ replenishment cycles, you can establish a reliable and consistent delivery schedule with your carrier so shelves will never be empty of the items your customers want.
6. Satisfied Customers
In today’s competitive market, whether you’re shopping online or in-store, satisfying customer demand with the goods for which they are looking keeps you in business. With a faster, more reliable shipping process, your customers will get their products consistently and as expected.
Freight consolidation helps you become the solution that customers, retailers, wholesalers, distributors, and food service distributors rely on.
Talk to Us About Freight Consolidation
We help our clients reduce costs and improve their delivery cycles with our dependable LTL freight consolidation program. Our service-oriented solution provides peace of mind by ensuring shipment compliance and on-time deliveries.
Speak to us about your next shipment today.