Eastern Europe Shipping Blog

Filling a container is like assembling a 3D puzzle. Put the pieces together just right, and you win a prize: lower freight costs.

That’s because ocean carriers charge for transportation by the container. If you pay $3,000 to ship a 40-ft. box, that price stays the same whether you fill the box with 20 pallets of cargo or 25. The more product you fit in, the less you pay per unit.

Here’s some advice for creating a container loading plan that gives you maximum benefit for your transportation buck.

You wouldn’t put on flip-flops to climb a mountain or go running with size-12 sneakers on your size-10 feet. Ocean containers are a bit like shoes: you need the right kind, and the right size, for your specific purpose.

If you’ve done business mainly within the U.S., but now you’re starting to import or export, get ready to be thrown some curveballs. International freight forwarding is a whole different game.

Moving containers to or from Europe? You’ll face rules and situations that don’t come up when you ship from state to state. It’s important to work with service providers that understand all the subtleties.

As a rule, the less you handle cargo, the better. But when you move heavy cargo internationally, sometimes it pays to transload. The extra handling adds a bit of risk, but if the numbers work out and your service partners do the job right, transloading can sometimes save you money.

When you need to get a container to the port or rail terminal, or from port or rail terminal to its final destination, you have some choices to make. One of them is how to source that over-the-road move. Should you work with the steamship line that provides the international transportation? Or should you work with a trucking broker?

Before you decide, here are some important factors to consider.

Would you pay good money to transport empty space? No?

But that’s exactly what you do whenever you don’t load a container to full capacity.

Carriers charge by the box to move containerized freight. It makes no difference to a steamship line whether you squeeze all the cargo you possibly can into a container, or if you leave it one-third empty. The charge is the same.

In most selling situations, including logistics, the companies doing the “recommending” tend to suggest solutions that favor the products or services they sell. 

• For long-haul freight, a rail company may see intermodal as the best solution.
• Freight auditors might say your transport solution is fine; you just need to keep carriers honest by checking invoices.

Shippers of heavy freight are faced with this regularly when steamship lines, or local forwarders working with steamship lines tell them they must limit container weight to 44,000 pounds or even less – what they claim is the legal limit. 

If you ship heavy cargo via ocean, you could be paying 20% or more than needed.  And the reason might be your steamship line.