Pay only for the space you use
In today's fluctuating market, you need flexibility—especially for smaller shipments. Freight consolidation options can help save time, reduce emissions, and cut costs while still meeting increasing freight demands.
Flexible solutions for every shipment
Automotive consolidation
Combine multiple orders from automotive suppliers into single shipments for automotive manufacturing plants, distribution centers, or retail locations.
Forward distribution
Ensure the quality and shelf-life of your goods—we’ll store and stage your product close to final destinations and pack to order, so your items arrive on time.
Freight consolidation
Moving dry or temperature controlled goods? Let us handle the logistics of combining your less than truckload (LTL) and less than container load (LCL) freight into full shipments.
Healthcare consolidation
Secure reliable transportation and improve efficiency for healthcare manufacturers, distribution centers, and retail locations.
Partial truckload
Balance cost and speed for mid-sized shipments with partial truckload solutions that reduce handling, improve transit times, and maximize trailer utilization.
Retail consolidation
Combine orders from multiple suppliers into a single retailer shipment with warehouse, retail-direct, and pre-paid supplier solutions.
Build a consolidation strategy that sticks
Top 5 benefits of consolidated shipping
The benefits of consolidation extend far beyond simple cost savings, though the financial impact alone may make it worth considering.
Cost reduction
The most immediate benefit of consolidated shipping is reduced shipping costs. Freight carriers charge based on weight and volume, but there are minimum charges for each shipment. When shipping multiple small packages separately, these minimum charges add up repeatedly. Consolidation eliminates this redundancy.
Simplified logistics management
Managing multiple shipments from different suppliers means tracking numerous bills of lading, coordinating various delivery schedules, and handling separate customs clearances for international shipments. Consolidation reduces this complexity to a single shipment, making logistics operations more manageable and reducing the administrative burden.
Improved inventory control
When shipments arrive separately over days or weeks, it adds complexity to the management of partial inventory levels and may cause stockouts of certain items while others are overstocked. Consolidation makes it simple to coordinate arrivals, ensuring the complete inventory sets at once, which streamlines order fulfillment and warehouse management processes.
Enhanced supply chain visibility
Tracking one consolidated shipment is infinitely easier than monitoring dozens of individual packages. Modern consolidation services provide detailed tracking and reporting, giving better visibility for more informed decisions about inventory and customer commitments.
Reduced environmental impact
Fewer individual shipments mean reduced fuel consumption and lower carbon emissions. For businesses committed to sustainability goals, consolidation shipping offers a tangible way to reduce environmental footprint while improving the bottom line.
What sets C.H. Robinson freight consolidation services apart
Unmatched Expertise
Benefit from expert-led freight consolidation services that boost your on time, in full performance and mitigate costly penalties.
Unrivaled Scale
With the market's broadest freight consolidation service options, we help you increase velocity and gain economies of scale.
Tailored Solutions
By combining shipments from multiple shippers, our tailored solutions help maximize your supply chain efficiency and flexibility.
How consolidation works: The step-by-step shipping process
Understanding the mechanics of a consolidation program can help determine alignment with business goals and identify effective implementation strategies.
Step 1: Supplier coordination
The process begins with suppliers. Instead of having each supplier ship directly to a warehouse or distribution center, they ship to a consolidation center. This requires clear communication about timing, packaging requirements, and labeling standards to ensure smooth processing.
Step 2: Collection at the consolidation center
The consolidation center receives shipments from various suppliers over a predetermined collection period, typically ranging from a few days to a couple of weeks—depending on volume. The facility inspects incoming shipments, verifies contents against packing lists, and organizes them for consolidation.
Step 3: Consolidation and repackaging
Once all expected shipments have arrived at the consolidation center, they're combined into a single larger shipment. This may involve repackaging items into larger containers, palletizing loose boxes, or optimizing the arrangement to maximize space utilization and ensure safe transport.
Step 4: Documentation and customs clearance
For international shipments, the consolidation center prepares all necessary documentation, including a single commercial invoice for the consolidated shipment. This streamlines customs clearance significantly, allowing for one entry instead of multiple separate clearances. The consolidation provider typically handles all customs paperwork and compliance requirements.
Step 5: Final delivery
The consolidated shipment is transported to the final destination via the most cost-effective method utilizing volumes—typically full truckload or container shipping rather than LTL or parcel options.
Testimonials
During the unprecedented global supply chain disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Henry Schein, an industry leader and worldwide distributor of medical supplies, turned to C.H. Robinson for help meeting their growing needs and demanding deadlines. When thousands of shipments of essential supplies—millions of masks, gloves, and other PPE supplies—needed to be delivered around the world, they leveraged our global suite of services, including air, ocean, customs brokerage, and surface transportation.
Types of consolidated shipping
Different business models and supply chain structures call for different approaches to consolidation.
| Consolidation type | Description | Ideal for | Top benefit | Top challenge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aggregation | Aggregation is the foundational consolidation method where shipments from multiple suppliers are gathered at a central point before being combined into a single outbound shipment. | Businesses sourcing from numerous vendors within the same geographic area and companies with varying order volumes from different suppliers. | Maximum flexibility in timing and the ability to combine shipments regardless of order size or frequency. | Requires coordination across multiple suppliers to ensure shipments arrive within the desired consolidation window. |
| Facility-based consolidation | Facility-based consolidation utilizes a dedicated warehouse or distribution center as a long-term consolidation hub, providing value-added services beyond simple .shipment combination. | International importers, businesses requiring quality inspection or repackaging, and companies needing inventory storage between consolidation cycles. | Full control over the consolidation process plus access to value-added services like kitting, labeling, inspection, and light assembly. | Higher costs due to warehousing fees and longer-term facility commitments. |
| Inbound optimization | Inbound optimization focuses on improving how products arrive by strategically timing and combining inbound shipments around receiving capacity and operational needs. | Businesses with limited dock space or receiving capacity, companies looking to reduce warehouse labor costs, and operations with predictable ordering patterns. | Reduced dock congestion and labor costs while improving warehouse efficiency and inventory accuracy. | Requires strong supplier relationships and the ability to influence or control supplier shipping schedules. |
| Rolling consolidation | Rolling consolidation maintains an ongoing consolidation window where shipments continuously arrive and consolidated loads are released on a regular schedule (weekly, bi-weekly, etc.). | Ecommerce businesses with steady restocking needs, manufacturers with continuous production, and companies with suppliers on varying production schedules. | Continuous consolidation benefits without coordinating specific "consolidation events," providing flexibility for suppliers with different lead times. | Some individual shipments may wait longer at the consolidation center, adding time to the total supply chain. |
| Consolidation carrier options | Consolidation carrier options involve working with freight carriers that offer consolidation as part of their service portfolio, combining shipments with other customers' freight heading to the same region. | Businesses new to consolidation, smaller shippers that don't have enough volume for dedicated consolidation, and companies seeking quick implementation without infrastructure investment. | Minimal management required and fast implementation without establishing dedicated consolidation relationships or facilities. | Less control over timing and handling compared to dedicated consolidation services, and shipments are combined with other customers' freight. |
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