FCL, also known as Full Container Load in the international shipping industry, normally refers to a 20 feet container. This term is commonly used to describe an international sea freight service where an exporter or importer has exclusive use of a dedicated sea freight container. Sea freight containers are usually loaded and sealed at origin and then shipped by a combination of sea, rail and road to the final destination.

LCL – If an exporter or importer does not have enough goods for one full container then we call it Less Than Container Load. In this case the customer approaches a consolidator, who then combines it with other consignments and then send it through sea freight. In this arrangement, the freight forwarder books a full container with a main shipping company. Then the consignments of different companies are consolidated and loaded on one container to make it Full Container Load.