Packing Tips LCL/FCL

Tips for Packing Your Container:

1. In rare cases, you may need a permit to have a shipping container position at your location; you may want to confirm with your local city hall.
2. Please check the container for any holes or serious dents and clean it out if necessary.
3. The container sits on a flat bed about 4 ft. from the ground, as there is no ramp or lift attached, you may make or rent a ramp or simply have more manpower to load and secure your items in the container.
4. It is important to secure your items in the container to prevent any shifting, as that may cause damage to your items.
5. The walls of the container are corrugated and have grooves so you can use strong ropes, nylon, or straps to secure your items. The container floor is wooden and you can nail items down to secure.
6. Make sure that there is no leakage of any liquid. If you are loading motorized vehicles in the container, it is most important that gasoline must be drained and battery terminals disconnected and battery secured.
7. Before closing the container, you may want to brace the back with partitions to prevent any forward or backward shifting.
8. A tight fitting load is the key to prevent damages to your items.
9. Do not load any hazardous materials in the container, such as paint, alcohol, ammunitions or even perfume. If you are not sure of any item that might be hazardous, please check with one of our agents.
10. These are just some tips to add to You list when loading container, please use good discretion and care when loading the container to prevent any problems that might occur due to improper or disregard in loading of the container.

Tips for Packing Boxes:

1. If you are using used boxes, make sure you cover up completely the markings on the boxes with adhesive tapes, otherwise you can use new moving boxes.
2. Adequate padding providing cushion strongly recommended for fragile or breakable items. Each box should be filled full. Do not use newspaper to fill any voids. Sometimes double boxing with foams in between them is a good idea for very fragile items.
3. Do not pack any hazardous materials such as alcohol, ammunitions, aerosol or even perfume in the boxes. If you are not sure of any item that might be hazardous, please check with one of our agents.
4. All boxes must be shut and sealed with strong adhesive tapes.
5. Label each box with your full name and the country that is shipping to and the number and amount of boxes (1 of 12).
6. These are just some tips to add to your list when packing your boxes, please use good discretion and care.

Palletizing and Creating:

This page is mostly related to shipping international LCL ocean freight. LCL is an abbreviation commonly used in the international cargo transportation industry to nominate Less than Container Load ocean freight service, i.e. shipping boxed, crated or palletized cargo, offered by international shipping companies from the USA to destinations overseas.

This information is provided to help non-commercial shippers that do not have a loading dock, appropriate equipment or experienced staff to prepare the ocean freight for international shipping, i.e. for individual shippers.We also suggest reading this page to smaller enterprises that intend to be involved in international shipping and trade, export or import goods from USA to other countries.

International LCL ocean freight can be shipped as follows:

• Loose items
• Palletized and shrink-wrapped
• Crated 
• Mixed

All international ocean freight shipping methods above have advantages and disadvantages. Shipper has to decide, in advance, which way he/she is going to prepare cargo for international shipping through ocean. 

There are advantages and disadvantages for shipping loos items through ocean.

Advantage: Shipping international as loose items is the most economical way, because the total ocean freight shipping cost will be calculated as a straight sum of volumes of all shipped items in cubic meters or cubic feet.   

Disadvantages: Shipping loose items using international ocean freight is not always safe for your import or export.

Since every single box will be loaded and offloaded in/out an ocean freight container by hand, it could be damaged during the handling process. It may be spread out in a warehouse(s) and/or in the ocean freight container(s) or might be partially lost during the trip. Loose items are more expossed to the stealing during the handling at the international ports as well.

However, If you are shipping up to 4-5 boxes, then your goods may be shipped as loose. But, if you ship many boxes or even one box which shipping unit exceeds 100 lbs, then the international ocean carrier may require to palletize your loose items anyway, no matter either you did or did not request  palletizing your shipping boxes from the international shipping company. 

Advantages: When you are shipping boxes overseas from or to the USA, using international ocean freight service, palletized and shrink-wrapped cargo is more safe and it is most likly to reach the destinations without being damaged or lost. During the handle of the cargo, forklifts will safely handle palletized cargo. Since all shipping boxes are kept together in the pallet(s) then the demage of a partial lose in your international ocean freight shipment is not possible. Palletized ocean freight is much better protected from potential theft on any stage of the international shipment as well.

Disadvantage: Additional charges for palletized ocean freight will appear.

1. Cost of pallet(s) and labor;
2. A charge due to extra chargeable volume for palletized ocean freight

As a rule you may ask an international ocean carrier's shipping warehouse, which you deliver your lose boxes to palletize them directly at the ocean carrier's shipping warehouse. Then you should pay for the palletizing service directly to the ocean carrier freight terminal. These charges will not be included in an international shipping company's freight invoice. Charges on palletizing may vary depending on the warehouse and type of used pallets from $355 to $100+ per skid including cost of pallet. 

When palletizing, your shipped boxes will be stacked by the international ocean freight carrier's terminal on the pallet(s), as many as it can fit. It can be stacked up to about 4 to 5 feet high and should not exceed 60" (1.52m). Then the whole cargo should be shrink and wrapped by a plastic film.

The size of standard U.S. pallet (also known as a "skid") is 48"(1.2m) x 40"(1.0m) x 6"(0.15m).

However in the international ocean freight industry it is permitted to use a variety of pallets with different sizes and forms. It is important that the froklifts can handle pallets/skids. I.e. its bases should be accessible for pallet-jacks on two sides with a minimum clearance of 3.5". All pallets must fit into a 40' multimodal ocean freight container.    

For example: a 40 x 50 x 50 inch skid for the ocean freight would equal 1.65 gross cubic meters (or 58 gross cubic feet).

GUIDELINES FOR PALLETIZING OF INTERNATIONAL OCEAN FREIGHT:

• Wooding packing restrictions: Keep in mind the wooding packing restrictions for ocean freight shipments when use wooden pallets for shipping ocean freight from/to the USA.     
  
• Addressing and Labeling: Before palletizing, label two sides of all individual cartons/shipping units within the skid(s) whenever possible. Remove or mark through the old labels, will help recognize your shipping boxes in the event of your skid would be broken during its international ocean freight shipping.  
  
  Label two sides of each skid. Include in the labels an ocean freight carrier's booking number and your consigner and consignee's contact information. The lable should contain informations such as names, addresses and phone numbers both at origin and destination on your international ocean freight shipment.
  
  DO NOT write anything about commodity in your shipping boxes. You will describe the commodity in your shipping documents which will be submitted to the international shipping company used for your ocean freight shippment. 
  
• Size and Weight: Skids exceeding 2,200 lbs. or exceeding 70" in height or 119" in length or 80" in width may require a prior approval. 
  
• Loading and Stacking: Distribute weight evenly. Stack boxes squarely corner-to-corner to the skid's edge to maximize compression strength, but do not allow shipping boxes to hang over the skid.
  
  Keep the top of the skid flat to minimize loss or damage to cartons; do not pyramid-stack.
  
  Place angled fiberboard (angleboard) between shipping boxes to prevent crushing. 
  
  Cover by a plastic film the top of skids to protect your freight from weather damage.
  
• Securing: Wrap ocean freight in 70-gauge stretchwrap. Pass at least two bands (tightly secured) through the skid voids and around all cartons. If possible, use steel, rayon, polypropylene, nylon or polyester strapping to band the ocean freight. Use shock-absorber connections or cushioned skids, if applicable, when bolting.

Crating cargo for the international ocean freight shipment, export or import, may be considerable expensive. Crating cargo shipped using international ocean freight service is necessary when shipping cargo such as furniture, big items or certain fragile commercial goods. A standard or custom-made solid crate can be purchased from a packing company. Check your local yellow pages or order online. You may consider a quality loading service from professional packing companies as well. 

We suggest you always asking your packing company if they are familiar with packing regulations (including wood packing regulations) for international ocean freight shipments.

Crates are consider the same as pallets. They must be forklift accessible and suitable for the load into a 40' ocean freight container.

IMPORTANT! Always keep in mind wooding packing restrictions when shipping international ocean freight.

Depending on what you ship, sometimes it is the good idea to ship international LCL ocean freight mixed. That means you can palletize and shrink-wrap small shipping boxes, crate most valuable or fragile items and leave oversized items loose. This approach can give you peace of mind and save on gross chargeable volume of your international ocean freight shipments.