Cost mitigation necessitated by steep airfreight rates, ongoing disruption of container availability, and volume fluctuation in the global shipment sphere is playing into the hands of less than container load (LCL) freight concerns, a Rhenus Logistics executive has said.
Quoted in British supply-chain portal The Loadstar, the multi-national freight forwarder’s global COO and Far East Asia CEO, Jan Philipp Harnisch, said: ““With air travel far less frequent and reaching record-high prices, as well as stock quantities fluctuating, LCL gives our clients the flexibility to fill up only the space they need in a container, rather than renting the whole thing.”
However, the smaller the load, the more companies compete to provide LCL options to clients, often at the cost of principled, client-centric service provision.
According to Harnish, as many as a dozen companies can get involved to ship goods LCL.
The lack of transparency it often leads to, as competitors jockey for business, may not be worth the immediately perceived benefits.
“Tracking this progress between so many logistics companies isn’t just difficult, it’s nearly impossible. And without it, the headaches may outweigh the savings,” he told logistics writer Sam Whelan.
Nevertheless, as Covid-19 continues to disrupt global freight efficiencies, LCL has emerged as a desirable trend for belt-tightening shippers.
