What is FTL, FCL , LCL ,LTL?

When you’re starting to deal with shipping large orders out from warehouses but aren’t yet running a dedicated transportation team with your own semis to courier your goods around the country, you’re going to be faced with a lot of different options as far as that shipping is concerned. If you have 3PL providers (third party logistics) handling your warehousing, order fulfillment, and shipping, then you might hear a variety of suggestions from them on the options that you have as far as delivering your shipments. One that you will surely hear suggested, especially if you are in that middle range of not quite filling full semi loads with your shipments to any particular location, will be to consider shipping LTL.

Whenever you’re dealing with full semis for transportation needs there are going to be two terms that you hear a great deal: FTL, and LTL. FTL stands for full truck load. This would be when you have enough of a shipment to occupy a whole truck, or close enough to it, to completely hire it from the transportation company with no other company allowed to ship goods on board.

On the other hand, LTL stands for less than truck load. This is the shipping option that most small to medium sized companies will employ, and is when you will only rent a portion of a truck load, with the remainder of the trailer divvied up amongst other companies who are shipping to a destination similar to your own.

There are some real advantages to shipping LTL. The most obvious of these is the considerable savings in cost that it can bring you. Because you are only renting a portion of the truck, and because the courier company is going to make more money (LTL is more profitable than FTL for them) they can afford to reduce the overall cost somewhat to each person that is shipping on the truck. In addition if you’re not going to use an entire FTL shipment and can’t fill the trailer right to capacity, you will find that you’re still going to be paying for that room, something that can really on a pound per pound basis make LTL shipping a great deal more cost effective. The only advantage to shipping FTL instead is if you have a very specific order that you need deliveries completed in, as you will have more flexibility when you have rented the whole truck.

What is Consolidation ?

Combining several smaller shipments into a full container load or a large shipment to avail of better freightrates. Also called groupage.

What is FCL ?

Standard (twenty or forty-foot) container that is stuffed (loaded) and un-stuffed (stripped) under the risk andaccount of the shipper or consignee. In general, a FCL container attracts lower freight rates than an equivalentweight of loose (break bulk) cargo. Also called full trailer load (FTL).

Our Road Transport Services include :

• Full Truck Load
• Less than Truck Load
• Semi-trailer
• Semi-trailer truck
  A semi-trailer truck, also known as tractor-trailer or  articulated truck or articulated lorry, often abbreviated to artic, is an articulated vehicle consisting of a towing engine (called tractor , prime , tractor unit or truck), and a semi-trailer (plus possible additional trailers) that carries the freight.
• Tractor unit
  A tractor unit, traction unit, road tractor or prime mover is a heavy-duty vehicle, usually with a large diesel engine and several axles. The tractor unit serves as a method of moving trailers (most often semi-trailers). Trailers can be swapped between tractor units quickly so the unit does not stand idle whilst the load is unloaded or loaded, unlike a rigid, and is not restricted to one type of goods as trailer types can be swapped e.g. Bulk tipper to a box van. The tractor-trailer combination also means that a load can be shared across many axles, yet be more maneuverable than an equivalently sized rigid truck (see trucks). The tractor unit couples to the trailer using some sort of mechanical lock system, usually a fifth wheel. A tractor unit is primarily designated a freight vehicle and is most common in the heavy goods vehicle class of vehicles although smaller van based tractor units do exist.
• Trailer
• Vehicle recovery
  Vehicle recovery is the recovery of any vehicle to another place, generally speaking with a commercial vehicle known as a recovery vehicle, tow truck or spectacle lift.

Our Air Transport Services :

• Now – the fastest route your cargo can take with immediate confirmation of orders
• Priority – typical transit time of 1 to 2 days from departure airport to destination airport
• Standard – typical transit time of 3 to 4 days from departure airport to destination airport
• Economy – typical transit time of 5 to 6 days from departure airport to destination airport

Med Truck International provides a full range of services as follows: shipping agency services, forwarding, brokerage, cargo survey, Customs clearance facilities, project cargo and heavy lifts.

Project Cargo Dept. is a division of MTI that provides specialized cargo transportation services to shippers of heavy and over dimensional equipment and integrated project logistics management for engineering, procurement and construction companies servicing energy, mining, chemical, petrochemical, pipeline, infrastructure and other sectors.

The construction of industrial plants and large infrastructure projects as well as the manufacturing of oversized equipment and modules present highly challenging and complex transport logistics problems that often involve the transportation of very heavy and oversized loads.

Based on our worldwide organization and our air and ocean freight transportation capabilities, we offer integrated turnkey project forwarding and logistics management services to various industries on a global scale. We develop transportation solutions that are tailor-made for each project and allow fast and secure shipment of plant parts as well as bulky and oversized goods for a great variety of projects.

Our services are especially suited for companies involved in constructing refineries, and petrochemical plants, mining emplacements or extensions, wind power plants and many other types of industrial plants. In addition, we have specialized solutions for suppliers of other heavy and oversized equipment and modules.

We add value to your business by providing reliable industry-specific expertise, a global network, and the market leverage from the MTI. We manage complex and challenging projects by establishing dedicated project teams assigned and deployed in response to your needs.

• Our project handling capabilities include:
• Site survey / feasibility studies (routes, weather, political climate)
• Full / part charter party’s (air charters, time/ voyage charters)
• Multi-modal transport (rail, tug & barge, heavy lift)
• Special equipment transport (flat racks, open tops, platforms, artificial tween deck solution)
• Freight negotiation (COA negotiation, long term rate validities)
• Administration (customs clearance, trade documentation)
• Today, our project cargo clients come from diverse sectors such as oil & gas, pulp & paper, automotive, construction, power & energy as well as aid cargo.

May 13-16, 2013

Antwerp Expo, Antwerp, Belgium

Stand : 629H4