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Delivery goods as Floor loaded or on pallets

Question:

When I send goods to Amazon, do they arrive on pallets or loose cartons (floor loaded)?

Answer:

A key factor to consider is the origin and destination of the goods.

In most cases, if your goods are already in a third-party warehouse (3PL) and you are sending them to an FBA warehouse within a country, such as within the USA, the goods will be delivered via pallets and under LTL (Less-than-truckload shipping or less than load is the transportation of an amount of freight sized between individual parcels and full truckloads. Parcel carriers handle small packages and freight that can be broken down into units less than approximately 150 pounds. Full truckload carriers move entire semi-trailers.

However, for Amazon merchants producing PRIVATE LABEL goods in countries such as China/India, in the vast majority of cases, the goods will be LOOSE CARTONS or FLOOR LOADED.

This is done in order to optimize the volume within the container.

Consequently, shipping companies pack goods one carton on top of the other to maximize the amount of goods that can be packed in a container, reducing shipping costs.

This containerizing in the country of the origin is only the first step.

The next step is upon entry to the destination country. What happens then? What is done with the goods?

When destination address is in US or Canada, forwarders provide rather a direct line or non direct line to destination.

A direct line will occur when the FBA center is locate in a “popular” location at US side(normally within the “edges” of US side such as states like California or NY/NJ.

In this case, the goods that were sent FLOOR LOADED will be delivered in the same manner.

However, for goods sent to less central warehouses or to third party warehouses, the goods will always be transferred to the agent's warehouse to be palleted before delivery, which ultimately means the goods will be delivered on pallets instead of as originally packed – LOOSE CARTONS/FLOOR LOADED.

It should be noted that Amazon warehouses in Europe only receive goods on pallets, therefore, goods being shipped to Europe will always be palleted first.

But there’s a catch. For sensitive/fragile goods, it is mandatory to indicate to the shipper the description of the goods and that the goods must be FLOOR loaded in the country of origin.

Bear in mind that pallets cost money, whether via the supplier or shipper, and that a pallet costs between 25-35 USD.