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Your Guide to Shared Truckload Shipping

You may not have heard of shared truckload shipping. Yet, it can prove highly cost-effective for your business.

This blog post will introduce shared truckload shipping and how it can help you to meet and exceed consumer demands. We’ll also go over how the process works.

Keep reading for your guide to shared truckload shipping.

What Is a Shared Truckload?

Shared truckload shipping is a straightforward practice. It involves sharing truckload space for shipping goods.

The practice enables shippers and carriers to collaborate. This partnership helps to create optimal shipping outcomes.

It enables participants to leverage supply chain efficiency. Shared truckload shipping also enables them to practice corporate responsibility.

Today’s shipping landscape is highly unpredictable. Shared truckload shipping can help you to navigate an uncertain logistics landscape.

This practice removes constraints. It enables retailers and other stakeholders to move smaller shipments cost-effectively and operate more nimbly.

Types of Shipping Modes

Let’s review various shipping modes to better understand shared truckload shipping.

With shared truckload shipping, several shippers share trailer space. The truck will make multiple stops until it completely delivers its load.

The polar opposite of this method is full truckload shipping. This method involves one truck transporting goods for one client. The truck will travel directly from the client’s pickup location to the drop-off location.

Less-than-truckload shipping is another partial shipment alternative. With this method, a carrier will transport a client’s goods through distribution centers and terminals. The freight will eventually make its way to its destination via a hub-and spoke-distribution model.

It helps to understand the role that load size plays in shipping to figure out which method is right for your needs.

Shipping Mode Load Requirements

As a retailer, it’s vital to understand the correct load size for each mode of shipping transportation. The logistics industry assesses certain criteria to evaluate load sizes. These criteria include:

• Freight class
• Linear feet
• Pallet quantity
• Weight

This information helps shippers to categorize the load size. The criteria for each shipping mode are different.

With shared truckload shipping, there’s no weight requirement. Also, there’s no freight class with shared truckload shipping. This transportation model works well for shipments of one to 24 pallets.

Freight class only applies to less-than-truckload shipments. With this method, shippers group items with like characteristics to make transporting goods more efficient.

How Shared Truckload Shipping Works

You may wonder, “Exactly how does shared truckload shipping work?” Well, we have answers.

In general, shipments headed in the same direction on a similar route will share space on a truck. The freight will travel directly from the pickup location to the destination. It never passes through a transportation terminal or hub.

In this way, shared truckload shipping provides both shippers and carriers with considerable benefits. For example, it provides considerable cost savings.

Shared Truckload Benefits

With shared truckload shipping, carriers can deliver damage-free loads. Furthermore, it’s easier to move goods to their destinations on time. Shared truckload shipping offers a high quality of service and efficiency.

It enables clients to share the space and cost of hiring a full-size trailer to transport goods. Shared truckload shipping can save carriers 15% to 20% in costs. As a result, carriers can pass those savings on to you.

Good for You, Good for the Environment

Shared truckload shipping is also a green logistics alternative. It’s the most efficient transport mode among all shipping methods. Shared truckload shipping delivers a considerable positive environmental benefit for this reason.

The transportation industry is the top source of emissions in the United States. Collectively, logistics contributes nearly two billion tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere every year.

Freight shipping accounts for 23% of vehicles in the logistics industry. They contribute nearly 7% of the nation’s total carbon emissions.

Shared truckload shipping helps to reduce the amount of vehicles on the road. It enables both carriers and shippers to practice corporate responsibility.

Going Green Has Never Been Easier

By taking advantage of shared truckload shipping, you can optimize your use of trailer space. Again, shared truckload shipping doesn’t make use of hubs and terminals. As a result, this shipping practice requires less road time to transport your goods.

Shared truckload shipping reduces gas emissions by up to 40%. It removes the need for carbon-intensive, energy-consuming less-than-truckload shipping hubs.

By investing in shared truckload shipping, you also invest in the environment. It helps to decrease the industry’s carbon footprint.

Rethinking Your Logistics

Most likely, you spend a considerable amount of resources to make your products and transport them to end-users. Technology and other innovations have helped to make logistics operations more efficient.

However, as you most likely know, these complex supply chain systems can hit snags. In transportation, things don’t always go as planned.

Take the current pandemic, for instance. No one could have ever anticipated such a massive slowdown in business.

Even worse, the pandemic resulted in significant shipping inefficiencies. In turn, retailers have quickly had to change the way they do business.

At the same time, consumers want things faster. Shared truckload shipping can help you navigate a shipping environment where it can feel like you’re getting squeezed from both sides.

Shared Truckloads Offer More than Space Sharing

Shared truckload shipping is an innovative alternative. With shared truckload freight shipping, you’re empowered to decide how you move your freight.

By participating in shared truckload shipping, you can bypass weight and freight class requirements. This shipping model can accommodate loads of any size. These are transformative benefits for both carriers and shippers.

Teaming Up for Shipping Success

If you’ve ever tried to manage shipping internally, you know that logistics expenses can prove exorbitant. Many logistics companies are not in a position to reduce costs. As a result, you can end up paying the highest price per unit, even though you don’t need certain modes of transportation.

Working with a shipping partner allows you to take advantage of their bargaining power. They can leverage their volume of business to help you save on shipping. As a result, finding a good shipping partner can help you move your goods more cost-effectively.

Partnering for the Win

In today’s uncertain logistics environment, many businesses have made the wise choice to delegate their shipping responsibilities. Doing so enables you to focus on improving your business.

Instead of focusing on shipping, you can use your resources to improve your goods or services. You can also devote more effort to improving your brand and marketing strategy.

In an ever-tightening talent market, you can also work on keeping your employees happy. You can also work on keeping your customers happy, who seem to have changing tastes by the day. By outsourcing your shipping needs, you can devote more effort to solve whatever pinch points are causing concern for your organization.

Save Time and Money

Again, the negotiation power of a good logistics partner can help you to save on transportation costs. However, there are other ways that an expert shipping service can deliver benefits.

Experienced logistics companies have considerable knowledge when it comes to moving goods. Many companies rely on this kind of expertise for their survival. Expert logistics providers know all the ins and outs of the industry.

A veteran logistics company can also provide you with value-added services. For example, they can provide you with exemplary distribution and fulfillment.

A partnership with the right shipping company gives you immediate access to the talent that you need to make your business thrive. They hire the best warehouse personnel around, so you don’t have to.

Technology That Meets Today’s Consumer Demands

It takes technology to keep up with consumers’ fast-changing demands. The cost of managing technology can prove quite high, especially for logistics. Working with an experienced logistics provider gives you access to remarkable technology.

Many companies cannot invest in added technology that can increase operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness. An established shipping company, however, has the resources to invest in technology that will optimize your transportation operation.

In turn, your partnership with this kind of firm will reduce costs. Best of all, an experienced logistics company will make sure that you comply with any regulations relevant to your industry, reducing the burden of legal troubles and helping you improve or maintain your brand image.

Your Partner in Shared Truckload Shipping

We hope our guide to shared truckload shipping has helped you to see the benefits of this shipping mode as well as how you can profit by working with an experienced logistics partner. Onsite Global Logistics is here to help you with all your shipping needs. Please feel free to contact us for a fast, free quote.

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Onsite Global Logistics is a third party logistics provider 3PL helping companies with innovative global logistics and supply chain solutions

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