FCL vs LCL

FCL full form: full container load. LCL full form: less than container load. Both are ways to ship by ocean container, and the difference is whether the container is yours alone. In FCL you book a whole 20ft, 40ft or 40ft high-cube container and pay for the box, however much of it you fill. In LCL your pallets or cartons are consolidated with other shippers’ cargo, and you pay per revenue ton for the space and weight you use.

Which one is cheaper

Below about 13 m³, LCL is usually cheaper. Above about 20 m³, a container of your own usually is. In between, compare both quotes: once the CFS handling at each end is added, a 20ft container often costs little more than the same cargo as LCL. Work out your volume with the CBM calculator, or see how many cartons fit with the container load calculator.

FCL vs LCL side by side

• What you pay for: FCL, the whole container plus terminal handling; LCL, the space and weight you use (weight or measure) plus CFS handling at both ends.
• Handling: an FCL container is loaded and sealed at origin and opened at destination; LCL cargo is handled at the origin CFS, at loading, at unstuffing and at delivery.
• Transit: both sail on the same vessels, but LCL takes longer door to door, because the CFS receiving cut-off comes earlier and deconsolidation and release add days at destination.
• Risk: LCL has more touches and shared space, so packing and marking matter more; an FCL seal stays on from origin to destination.
• Typical cargo: LCL suits samples, first orders and irregular volumes; FCL suits regular production volumes, dense goods and fragile or time-critical cargo, even at small volumes.

Check the weight as well as the volume

LCL is charged on whichever is greater, cubic meters or metric tons. Dense cargo such as tiles, stone or machinery parts can also reach US road weight limits long before a 20ft container is full, so a heavy shipment may need two containers or a different split.

Getting prices for both

You can check ocean freight rates for full containers where carriers publish them (availability varies; the rate search has no LCL mode), or request an ocean freight quote for either. See FCL shipping services and LCL shipping and consolidation for what each quote includes.