Columbia Business – June D. Bell – May 10, 2018
Ever wondered how that T-shirt you bought made its way from the factory to the store? Most likely, it was thanks to the work of a freight forwarder that handles the logistics involved in getting goods to their endpoints. Let’s say that a factory in the South China city of Dongguan wants to send a shipment of T-shirts to Nordstrom. Assume that the order is not big enough to fill an entire shipping container, so it’s sending an LCL—less than container load.
- The factory sends a message to Flexport through its online portal indicating when the cargo will be ready for pickup.
- Flexport messages a trucking company through this portal to pick up the T-shirts from the factory.
- A truck delivers the T-shirts to Flexport’s consolidation warehouse— cross dock—in Yantian, about 50 miles away. Workers at the cross dock load the containers. (About 10 customers’ items per consolidation is common.)*
* Flexport’s software builds the consolidation, by combining LCLs to match the volume of the container. - Flexport software messages a trucking company specially equipped to transport shipping containers.
- A truck takes the container to the port— gates in. 3 Flexport’s software generates the bill of lading, which is like a ticket that allows the cargo onto the ship.
- At the port, the container with the cargo is loaded onto the ship.
- While the ship is in transit, Flexport uses its software, which is integrated into US customs software, to preclear the T-shirts through customs. It tracks the ship with its dashboard, the dashboard also enables the customer to follow the shipment, and hires a truck to gate out the container.
- At port, the container is unloaded from the ship.
- A truck arrives at the port to gate out the container and deliver it to Flexport’s cross dock in Los Angeles.
- At the LA cross dock, a crew unpacks the items from the container. Flexport software contacts a trucking company to pick up the T-shirts and deliver them to the Nordstrom warehouse.
- A truck arrives at the Flexport warehouse and completes the delivery of the T-shirts to the Nordstrom warehouse.
