Sea freight is a very cost effective way to send your unaccompanied baggage or household goods overseas but when we compare it with air freight it is considered to be quite slow. If you want to send heavy or bulky items cost effectively and time is also not an issue then sea freight can be the right choice.

Sea freight charges are mainly based on origin/destination ports and the CONTAINER SIZE if shipping a Full Container Load (FCL). On another side it is based on CARGO VOLUME if shipping Less than a Container Load (LCL).

FCL is elaborated as Full Container Load. It is a standard container that is loaded and unloaded under the risk and account of a single shipper and a single consignee, in common practice it means that the whole container is intended for a single consignee. Generally, a full container load (FCL) attracts lower freight rates than an equivalent weight of loose (break bulk) cargo.

There are basically three kinds of containers used for FCL of household goods & personal effects – 20′ standard containers, 40′ standard containers, and 40′ high cube containers.

The main benefit of an ‘exclusive’ FCL container is that your personal & household goods will be the ONLY cargo in the container and it will not be consolidated with other smaller shipments (and not necessarily Household Goods shipments). FCL shipments also offer a higher level of security and a decreased chance of damage as there is less handling of shipment.  In most of the cases, the container is loaded and security sealed at your residence. The container will then be routed directly to the port and loaded on the next available carrier to your destination. In some countries, your container could be delivered directly to your new accommodation, subject to customs & agricultural inspections/examinations in the country of destination.

LCL means less than container load or loose container load. LCL shipments are meant for smaller size cargo and Sea freight is charged as per Cubic Meter (Minimum rate is for 1 CBM or 1000 Kilograms, whatever is the greater). Your LCL shipment will share container space with other LCL shipments and therefore, it costs you less than what you pay for a full container. The cargo is kept by the shipping company until there is any availability of space in the containers going to the same destination. The cargo is then “consolidated” with other general freight in that container and shipped.

There are some drawbacks of LCL shipment, for example when we calculate the overall cost of the cargo as per LCL rates sometimes it comes to be much higher than the cost of sending the whole container (FCL). Also the cargo may take twice or thrice times to reach to the final destination while waiting for the space and finally goods get handled multiple times by the persons outside of our organization.