Because the world is always changing and people need to send and get things quickly from one country to another, the airline industry has come up with a new way to ship: air freight.
Air freights are basically the things that are being shipped and are put into different categories to make shipping easier and more organised. Some of the main ways to classify air freight are:
- The kind of item
- How big is the item, both in terms of how many are in the shipment and how big it is?
- The number of days or hours a shipment takes to get to its destination.
On the other hand, shipments are put into the following groups:
Household goods include art, furniture, and other similar items. Most Household Goods (HHG) carriers, like North American Van Lines and Bekins, move these kinds of goods.
In the "Express" category, on the other hand, personal and small business items that are often shipped overnight are included (or express shipment, express letters, and overnight express). Shipping companies like FedEx Express, UPS, and DHL do these kinds of moves.
Most of the things in this category are small and don't weigh more than a couple of pounds, so they often come in their own packaging from the carrier.
The level of service varies depending on what the carrier offers or what the shipper wants. Most of the time, these are sent by air, and they may arrive the same day they were sent to the carrier, or it may take several days.
Parcels are packages that are a little bit bigger and heavier than express items. These include shipping boxes, no matter what's inside. For this kind of cargo, carriers like UPS and FedEx Ground offer their services. Most business-to-consumer items and services are sent in parcels, and most parcels don't weigh more than 100 pounds. Since these are small, the shipper or carrier often puts them on their own packaging.
There are also different kinds of services in this group. But depending on the service the shipper provides or the service option the customer chooses, some ground shipping can go 500 to 700 miles a day in three to four days. Most of the time, these kinds of shipments don't go by air. Instead, they move by road and rail.
Freight shipments cover the industry's biggest loads. It can be broken down into two main groups: LTL, which stands for "larger-than-truckload freight," and TL, which stands for "truckload freight."
Motor freights are another name for shipments that don't fill a whole truck. These usually cover most transactions between businesses. Services range from moving things that weigh 100 pounds to those that don't weigh more than 15,000 pounds. Since LTL trailers are only 28 inches long, most of this kind of air freight cannot be longer than this.
Shipments don't usually come in company packaging like smaller packages do.
Truckload freight is for shipments that are between 15,000 and 40,000 pounds and up to 53 inches long. This kind of air freight is different from all the others because it usually doesn't stop along the way and isn't mixed up with other shipments. Freight brokers and online marketplaces are often used to set up most of them.
When using this kind of air freight, it's best to fully understand all the terms, such as claims, pricing, and insurance.
