When it comes to LTL freight shipments, consolidation is key. Without it, you are shipping money out the door through inefficiency.
Picture the empty space on your trailers as filled with pallets of cash, because that is essentially what you are sending out of your warehouse.
Now, what if you could fill those trailers with product while decreasing the total amount of trips your trailers have to make? That’s consolidation.
LTL Freight Consolidation
By simply combining LTL freight shipments into full truckloads, you can literally drive down freight costs and emissions while increasing productivity and profit. You can consolidate multiple partial shipments (usually consisting of no more than six pallets) into full multi-stop truckloads that are ready to hit the road.
It will help you to create and maintain an optimized supply chain that will get your products to where they need to be in the most effective way possible. Your customers, and your bottom line, will thank you.
When implemented properly, LTL freight consolidation can help you to:
- Decrease logistics and transit times
- Reduce your overall shipping costs
- Minimize your company’s emissions and carbon footprint
- Lower risks and claims due to a decrease in the handling of products
- Give you more control over your shipping methods and routes
- Better track your shipments and truckloads
It sounds like a simple enough process, and in essence, it is. It just takes a bit of organization on the part of you and your logistics partner. Thankfully, there are a few things that you can do you maximize the efficiency of your consolidated shipments.
Invest in New Technology
The most important aspect of consolidating LTL shipments is having updated transportation management and tracking systems. These systems will allow you to create and implement consolidated load plans that are more efficient and cost-effective. Partnering with a logistics partner with these systems and capabilities can provide the expertise without increasing your investment.
The essence of consolidated shipments is route planning. Your system or supply chain partner should be able to identify common destinations of small shipments, consolidate them, then lay out and track outgoing shipments in a particular region. That way, you can fill trucks to their capacity and ship out fewer truckloads.
By effectively utilizing the space on trailers and sending them out on multi-stop trips that are optimized for reduced mileage, you will see your shipping costs drop significantly.
Find the Perfect Facility
Because of consolidation, your warehouse must be properly equipped to handle your consolidated shipments. Here, organization is key. You don’t want to send out the wrong goods to the wrong region.
A warehouse tracking system will help you to identify the locations of goods without having to scour the warehouse to find their location. This way, you can effectively move around and consolidate stock in a timely manner before loading it onto trailers for shipment.
Most often, companies find the key to facility consolidation is by using a trusted warehousing partner. Their expertise both with running their facility and with tracking the products stored within their facility streamlines the process.
The King Way
At King Solutions, we provide another type of LTL consolidation for our customers through our CoastalPlus™ program. With CoastalPlus™, LTL shipments are combined and shipped to major coastal cities in 2-3 business days.
Here at King, we understand the individual needs of each of our customers. If you believe that consolidated LTL shipments are right for your business, give us a call today.
Joel Rice