When Should You Ship Full Containers (FCL) and Less than Containers (LCL)?

When should you use LCL ocean freight and when should you use FCL ocean freight? The obvious answer would appear to be that you should ship full containers when you have enough stuff to fill the container and LCL, otherwise. This isn’t quite true.

From a financial point of view, a full container with a full load of 75% or more is usually cheaper than sea LCL (in other words, the LCL surcharge is about 25%). However, there are two other important considerations. First, the transportation time of LCL is about 1-2 weeks longer than FCL. That's because the freight forwarder must pack your items and unpack your items with others.

Secondly, due to this additional handling, LCL goods are more likely to be lost and damaged (although this situation is very rare). If time and care are important to you, then shipping even half-empty containers can sometimes make sense.