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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.

Things to consider are:

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

- How large the object is, both in terms of item sizing and quantity.

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

- Shipments are ordinarily noted as household goods, express, parcel, and freight items.

Furniture, artwork, or like Items are by and large sorted as household goods.

Most small business or personal items, for example envelopes are considered as "overnight express" or "express letter items". They are rarely over a few pounds, and almost always get sent in the carriers typical packaging. Depending on your choice as a shipper, the level of service varies.

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.

Shipments weighing below 50Kg total, but larger than the previous catagory, are called parcel or ground dispatches. No individual item in that is normally over 35Kg. These are usually shipped in boxes provided either by the shipper himself or by the carrier.

Parcel loads account for the vast majority of B2C (business to consumer) traffic, and are not normally sent by air transport. The chosen methods are road and rail, and the average consignment will cover anywhere from 500-700 miles a day. Again the service levels can be chosen by the shipper and will affect the overall result.

Freight is the term to refer to shipments that will not fit into the catagories of either "parcel" or "household goods".

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

The first listing of freight cargo is less than truckload (LTL). LTL carrier's trailers are typically 28' long and complete utilization of a 28' pup is considered capacity. Air cargo or air freight shipments are very similar to LTL shipments in terms of size and packaging requirements.

2. The next catagory is (TL) Truckload:

Anything larger than 15,000 pounds will be classed Truckload (TL) in the United States of America. The most economical way to ship this size is on it's own truck rather than sharing, like the LTL shipments.

A full truck is limited to the amount of weight that a unit can legally carry by the difference between 80,000 pounds and the weight of the tractor trailer. Increasing shipment size has proven to be a significant opportunity for many companies - particularly large consumer product companies.

Plans for increasing load size include: reducing truck equipment weights for example, by "light weighting" the equipment. This may involve extensive use of lighter-weight materials such as aluminum. When shipping freightage, it is highly important to see the details about pricing, claims, and insurance.

How freight pricing works:

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.

Article Source: http://www.articlebankonline.com

Freight and shipping is an exciting world and is full of opprotunity for those who are attracted to a real challange. Author Frank Dunne has a information-packed site filled with freight information and useful resources at freight-information.com

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