Full container load (FCL)
Full container load (FCL) gives one shipper exclusive use of an entire ocean container at a flat rate per box, whether or not the cargo fills it. The container is loaded and sealed at origin and opened by the consignee at destination. FCL usually beats less-than-container load pricing above roughly 13 to 15 cubic meters, and it avoids the consolidation handling and delays that come with sharing a container.
Examples
Crossover math: A buyer has 18 CBM of molded housings moving Ningbo to Oakland. LCL at $52 per CBM plus about $400 in origin and destination station fees totals roughly $1,340. A 20-foot FCL box on the same lane is $1,150 flat, arrives several days sooner, and skips the deconsolidation stop.
Utilization is the rate: A 40-foot container at $2,400 carrying 24,000 finished units lands freight at $0.10 per unit. The same box shipped at 55 percent cube carries 13,200 units at $0.18 each. The flat rate never changed; the loading plan did.
Definition
The FCL versus LCL decision is a step function. LCL is priced per cubic meter; FCL is a flat rate for the box. A 20-foot container holds roughly 28 to 33 usable CBM, but its flat rate typically equals only 13 to 15 CBM of LCL charges, so FCL wins long before the container is full. Shippers routinely book a whole box at half cube because it is still cheaper than sharing.
Price is only half the case. An FCL box is sealed at the supplier's dock and opened at the consignee's, so there is no consolidation warehouse at origin, no deconsolidation at destination, no co-loaded freight from strangers, and no risk that a customs hold on someone else's cargo delays yours. Transit is more predictable too: the container moves on the ocean freight schedule without waiting for a consolidator to fill space, and program capacity is planned in containers and TEU rather than cubic meters.
FCL also concentrates responsibility. Free time runs against you alone, so a slow receiving dock turns directly into demurrage, and poor cube utilization is your cost alone: a box shipped 40 percent full spreads a flat rate over too few units.
Related Terms
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