Essentially, the forwarder will combine freight from 2 or more of his customers, load the cargo into a container, and ship to their office or agent at destination. The destination agent will de-consolidate the freight and move the goods to the respective consignees.

You have to determine what size and how many containers you need. In consolidations, the cargo is not uniform. One customer might have loose cartons, while another might have all pallets. This is when stowage becomes tricky. There is no one magical equation to solve this. You should try to visualize the freight and how it might piece together. Making a drawing always helps.

Estimating container size is the best way to start and it will "point you in the right direction." When you have estimated what the container size requirements are, you then determine how all the cargo will be loaded, and if it indeed fits your estimate.

There are different documents required when "putting together a consol." You will require a master bill of lading for the container move, accompanied by a cargo manifest outlining the contents of the container, as well as forwarders' bills of lading, or NVOCC bills of lading for each shipment loaded into the container.

Consolidation Question

In this question, you have 2 customers who each have cargo to ship to Tianjin, China. Different shippers (consignors), different importers (consignees). All details are given below.

As the consolidator, your task is to:

1. Pick up the goods from the sellers' warehouses and load the cargo into your consolidated container(s) at your Mississauga, ON, CA, warehouse. You need to determine the number of containers you need but 40' standard containers are more available, less expensive, and should be used unless one TEU with the rest FEU's makes more sense.

1. Complete all required documentation for this "consol box". You may make up a name for your agent in China, as well as any inland carriers or ocean carriers (Vessel, Voyage). This exercise is adapted from exercise 12.2 from your CIFFA exercise book and will guide you but you must change all load planning and documentation to fit the weights, dimensions, and locations in this problem.

You are picking up the following goods from:

Shipper #1:	Consignee #1:
Ontario Maple Supplies Ltd.	Joe Badali Restaurants
147 Queen St. Brampton, ON,	134 North Street
M5R 2S4	Beijing, China

Shipment details:

• 1,350 cartons of Maple Syrup
• The dimensions of each carton are 20 in x 10 in x 11 in
• The weight of each carton is 20 kg
• Terms of trade: CPT Tianjin Container Terminal, China Incoterms 2020.

Shipper #2: Consignee #2:

Canada Goose Parka Inc. Zapata Importers S.A.

468 North Drive, Mississauga, ON Port of Tianjin, China

L3T 5S1

Shipment details:

• 900 cartons of winter parkas
• The dimensions of each carton are 24 in x 18 in x 16 in
• The weight of each carton is 16 lb
• Terms of trade: CIP Tianjin Container Terminal; c/o CIFFA Forwarder, Incoterms 2020.

Additional information:Neither shipment is palletized. Liquids and heavy cargo on the bottom, weight should be balanced side to side and end to end.

The inside dimensions of the FEU (40' containers) = 473" long x 91" wide x 93" high and the net weight is 25,000 kg

The inside dimensions of the TEU (20' containers) = 233" long x 91" wide x 93" high and the net weight is 20,000 kg