Written By: Freight Ship Logistics on Jul 27, 2012
Transporting Goods Safely And At Affordable Rates
There are different modes of transport that can be used to move products from one location to another. The most common ones are; rail, air, truck and water. The use of trucks to move products is the most common in the US since it offers shippers great flexibility and the cost is relatively low. Large items can be moved faster with truck transportation as compared to rail which depends on the timetable of the railroads.
There are two types of service offered by the general freight carriers in the US. These are; Less Than Truckload (LTL) and Full Truckload (FTL). With FTL one product from one customer is moved in full containers or trucks while for LTL carrier goods from several different customers are moved on one truck. In terms of cost analysis, LTL carrier gives clients a more cost effective method of shipping goods than the FTL operator.
How Does LTL Work?
Shipments from customers are collected by the LTL freight operator within a local area using a number of vehicles. Once the daily collection is done, the vehicles are taken to a terminal and the shipments unloaded. The customer bills are rated and processed by weighing their respective shipment. An outbound vehicle is loaded with each individual shipment on the basis of geographic area where it is to be delivered. There are appropriate regional terminals that trucks the outbound shipment and unloads them. Sorting of the shipments is done and local vehicles are used to make the deliveries. Before arriving to its final destination, each shipment has to be handled a number of times from the time the customer hands it to the operator.
Merits Of LTL Carriers
The main advantage of employing LTL rather than FTL is on cost. It is relatively low to send a shipment using LTL rather than FTL. This is because LTL competes with the normal parcel carriers for the same market though the latter do not accept shipments weighing between 70 and 100 pounds.
What About Flatbed Carriers?
The transport of oversized loads or truckloads is best done by the flatbed trucking. There are many carriers offering this service. It is therefore important to evaluate any carrier before settling for them. Flatbed carriers are a bit expensive when a long way is involved in your movement.
Visit Freight Ship Logistics for more information on safe and affordable shipping options.