Asset-Based Local Cartage
Asset-based local cartage means that the transportation company owns their equipment, including trucks, tools, distribution centers, and warehouses, instead of traditional freight brokers who connect one with the other or are non-asset-based.
Asset-based carriers handle all facets of the supply chain movement and provide the physical storage, transport, and delivery of goods and the logistical management of the process. In addition, asset-based carriers generally employ their drivers, which keeps all the drivers aligned with the company’s standards.
Asset-based carriers work directly with shippers, allowing customers to communicate directly with the transportation company while nurturing a relationship between the asset-based carrier and the company needing shipping services. This gives many shippers a certain level of comfort, knowing there is direct contact. Asset-based carriers are largely more reliable and offer higher-quality transportation services.
Less-than-Truckload (LTL)
Less-than-truckload, sometimes referred to as less-than-load, means that a transportation company consolidates the shipping of goods of multiple businesses on the same truck when loads for individual companies are smaller. If you don’t want to wait till an entire truckload of product is needed to be shipped, the transportation company will coordinate these LTLs, so you don’t have to.
Less-than-truckload services save you money as you don’t need to pay for the entire truck even though your products do not fill the truck. Less-than-load also maximizes the use of the transportation company’s fleet, making the process of distribution and fulfillment more efficient. The loading and shipping requirements of several companies are combined through a process referred to as assembly service.
LTL is essential because it saves on shipping costs which benefits you the most because why pay for an entire truckload when it wouldn’t be used entirely? While the shipment may take longer than paying for an entire truckload as the delivery is not as direct, the shipping cost is significantly less.
Freight Forwarding
Freight forwarding means that the transportation company acts as a freight forwarder and coordinates cargo shipments that entail transporting products by methods other than trucks on land. Whether the transport needs to be done domestically or internationally, when a company offers freight forwarding, they will handle getting your products to where they need to be by rail, air, or sea.
Freight forwarding can be essential to a company when they know that not all transport can or should be done by a truck. If the transportation company doesn’t offer freight forwarding, you can be left having to coordinate where the shipment needs to go. A company that offers freight forwarding is more efficient as it is done all in one process. There’s no need to be in contact with multiple different companies, only one.
Cross-Docking
Cross-docking means that products unloaded from incoming trucks or a railroad car are loaded immediately onto an outbound truck or railroad car. Cross-docking is useful when shipments have to stay in motion. Due to the products being immediately moved from the incoming to the outbound, there is little to no storage needed, which results in reduced storage costs.
With companies that use this method, distribution centers act more as a sorting facility than a warehouse or storage facility. Cross-docking streamlines the supply chain, with little to no storage or management costs involved and the products leaving the distribution center and reaching the end consumer quicker. This service is highly beneficial and cost-effective for companies with hefty transportation needs and an abundance of shipments.
Cross-docking is especially beneficial if you partake in intermodal trucking, sometimes referred to as drayage. Intermodal trucking refers to the shipment of products using more than one mode of transportation. When a transportation company handles cross-docking, you can carry out intermodal trucking efficiently.