Full Container Load (FCL)

Full container load (FCL) means you book a whole container for your cargo alone and pay for the box, however much of it you fill. The usual choices are a 20ft, 40ft or 40ft high-cube container. Nothing else travels in it, so it is packed and sealed once at origin and opened at destination.

What fits in each container

• 20ft standard: about 33 m³ and a rated payload of about 28,200 kg
• 40ft standard: about 68 m³ and about 26,700 kg
• 40ft high-cube: about 76 m³, the usual choice for light, bulky cargo

Plan on using 80–85% of the cube once pallets, dunnage and packaging are in. In the United States weight is often the tighter limit: federal law generally caps a five-axle truck on the Interstate at 80,000 lb gross, tractor, chassis and container included (23 U.S.C. 127), unless a state permit or grandfather rule allows more, so dense cargo such as stone, tile or steel reaches the road limit well before it fills a 20ft box. The container dimensions page has the internal measurements.

FCL or LCL

Below about 13 m³, LCL is usually cheaper; above about 20 m³, a container of your own usually is; in between, compare both quotes. The FCL-versus-LCL table sets the two side by side by volume, handling, transit and cut-offs.

How an FCL booking moves

FCL normally moves CY/CY: the empty container is collected, packed and sealed at the shipper's site, weighed for the VGM, and returned full to the container yard by the cut-off on the booking. At destination it is released after customs and trucked out. Watch the free time at both ends: a container left in the terminal too long accrues demurrage, and one kept at your warehouse too long accrues detention.

Booking FCL with Airlift

Airlift is an FMC-licensed NVOCC: we book the container with the carrier, issue the house bill of lading to you, file the ISF and arrange drayage from the port. Equipment, cut-offs and transit times are on the FCL ocean freight page, and you can check container rates for your lane in rate search.