Full Container Load

A Full Container Load (FCL) shipment refers to when a single person’s import or export shipment fills an entire shipping container.

This means the supplier can completely fill a container, have it taken directly to a shipping yard, and send it to its destination. A Less Than Container Load (LCL) shipment, for example, is combined with other small shipments from multiple people into one container and undergoes numerous consolidation and deconsolidation processes before reaching its destination. This means that FCL shipments are normally faster.

FCL shipments are charged per container and are suitable for shipping larger quantities of cargo, particularly when all cargo has the same destination. Because the contents of the container are all owned by one person, the owner can choose to load the container themselves or have the shipper do it, an option not available for LCL shipments.