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What is Cartage in Shipping and Logistics?
min read
Efficient local transportation is a cornerstone of successful logistics operations. One term that often comes up in this context is “cartage.” But what is the meaning of cartage, and why is it so important in shipping and logistics?
Understanding the meaning of cartage can help companies optimize their local deliveries, reduce costs, and improve overall supply chain performance.
In this blog, we’ll break down the meaning of cartage, why it matters, and how it can help your business run better.
What is Cartage?
Cartage is the movement of goods over a short distance, usually within the same city or area. Unlike long-distance shipping, cartage deals with local deliveries. For example, when a business needs to send products from a warehouse to a nearby store or customer, cartage is the service that handles this task.
Cartage is an important part of the supply chain because it connects the main shipping routes with the final destination. By understanding the meaning of cartage, businesses can improve their management of local deliveries, reduce delays, and keep customers satisfied.
Now that you understand what cartage means, let’s explore the different types of cartage services commonly used in logistics operations.
What are the Types of Cartage?
There are various forms of cartages, each tailored to specific logistics needs. Understanding these types helps businesses choose the right service for efficient, secure delivery of goods within short distances.
1. Local Cartage
Local cartage is the movement of goods within a city or a specific commercial area. This service is essential for businesses that require quick and reliable delivery over short distances.
Local cartage often uses small vans or trucks to transport products from warehouses to stores or customers, making it a key part of daily logistics for many companies.
2. Terminal Cartage
Terminal cartage handles the transfer of cargo between different terminals or between a terminal and a local destination. There are several forms:
Inter-terminal cartage moves goods between separate terminals within the same hub, such as from a rail terminal to a truck terminal.
Intra-terminal cartage involves moving goods within a single terminal, including sorting or temporary storage.
Expedited terminal cartage prioritizes swift transfers to meet stringent delivery deadlines.
3. Pier Cartage
Pier cartage is crucial in port cities. It involves transporting goods between ships, piers, warehouses, and container yards. This type of cartage ensures a smooth transition from sea transport to land-based delivery, supporting import and export operations.
4. Origin and Destination Cartage
Some providers also distinguish between origin cartage (picking up goods from the manufacturer to a port or warehouse) and destination cartage (moving goods from a warehouse to the customer or sorting center). Both are vital for first-mile and last-mile logistics, helping businesses manage the entire journey of their products.
With these types in mind, let’s explore how cartage actually works on the ground; from pickup to final delivery.
What is The Process of Cartage Shipping?
Cartage isn’t just about short-distance transport; it involves a coordinated series of steps to ensure local freight moves smoothly and on time. From scheduling and loading to delivery and confirmation, each stage plays a key role in ensuring goods are handled efficiently, securely, and in line with customer expectations.
Step 1: Scheduling and Order Placement
The process begins when a business places a cartage request, typically for moving goods between local facilities, such as from a port terminal to a warehouse or a distribution centre to a retail outlet. Accurate scheduling prevents delays and ensures alignment with the broader supply chain timeline.
Step 2: Pickup and Loading
Once the order is confirmed, a cartage provider dispatches a local transport vehicle (usually a truck or van) for pickup. Proper loading practices are essential to secure the cargo and prevent damage during transit.
Step 3: Local Transportation
The goods are then transported over a short distance, typically within a city or region. This leg of the journey is the essence of cartage, providing a reliable link between long-haul shipments and final delivery points.
Step 4: Delivery and Unloading
Upon arrival, the goods are carefully unloaded and inspected if necessary. Timely delivery is especially important for time-sensitive goods or operations with tight inventory cycles, such as just-in-time (JIT) supply chains.
Step 5: Confirmation and Documentation
After delivery, the driver or logistics partner provides confirmation, either via digital signature or paper proof of delivery. Any required documentation, such as delivery receipts or cargo condition reports, is completed to maintain accurate records and ensure transparency.
By understanding each step of the cartage process, your business gains better insight into its role within local logistics and how it supports fast, flexible last-mile operations.
Up next, let’s look at the key costs and documentation involved—two factors that can significantly impact logistics planning and compliance.
Cartage Fees and Documentation
A key part of understanding cartage is understanding how fees are calculated and what documentation is required for each local delivery. Knowing these details helps businesses plan their budgets and ensures smooth, compliant operations.
The cartage fees are usually based on several factors. Here's how cartage fees are calculated:
Distance: The cost often depends on how far the goods need to travel within the city or region.
Weight and Volume: Heavier or bulkier shipments may incur higher costs because they require larger vehicles or specialized handling.
Type of Goods: Fragile, hazardous, or high-value items may incur an additional fee due to the need for extra care or insurance.
Service Level: Express or time-sensitive deliveries may come with higher charges.
Understanding these factors is important for businesses to estimate the total cost and avoid unexpected expenses accurately.
Essential Documentation
Proper documentation is another crucial aspect of cartage. Common documents include:
Cartage Order or Delivery Note: Details about the shipment, pickup, and delivery locations.
Proof of Delivery (POD): Signed confirmation that the goods have reached their destination.
Invoices: For billing and payment purposes.
Special Permits: Required for certain types of goods or restricted areas.
Accurate paperwork ensures transparency, helps resolve disputes, and keeps the entire delivery process efficient and organized.
To further clarify the role of cartage, it’s important to distinguish it from other commonly used logistics terms, such as drayage and freight
Cartage vs. Drayage vs. Freight
Here’s how cartage compares to drayage and freight in terms of distance, function, and use cases, so you can choose the right service for your logistics needs.
With the differences clarified, it’s time to explore why businesses rely on cartage services in the first place; let’s look at the key benefits they offer.
What are the Benefits of Cartage Services?
Cartage services offer practical advantages that make short-distance transportation more effective and reliable.
1. Streamlined Local Deliveries: Cartage helps move goods quickly from warehouses or distribution centers to stores and customers within the same city. This smooth flow of products keeps supply chains running efficiently and reduces the risk of delays.
2. Cost Savings
Since cartage focuses on short routes, it often costs less than long-distance shipping. Businesses can save on fuel, labor, and vehicle maintenance, which helps control overall transportation expenses.
3. Greater Flexibility
With cartage, companies can schedule more frequent deliveries and adjust routes as needed. This flexibility supports better inventory management and allows businesses to respond quickly to changes in customer demand.
4. Improved Customer Experience
Reliable cartage services mean customers receive their orders on time. Meeting delivery promises helps build trust and encourages repeat business.
5. Reduced Handling Risks
Cartage usually involves fewer transfers between vehicles or facilities. Less handling means goods are less likely to be damaged, which is important for fragile or high-value items.
6. Support for Local Business
By using cartage services, businesses contribute to the local economy and help create jobs in their communities.
Knowing these benefits, it becomes easier to identify the situations where cartage services offer the most value for your business.
When to Use Cartage Services?
Cartage services are essential for businesses that need to move goods efficiently over short distances, especially within cities or specific regions. Here are the most common ways cartage services are used:
1. Last-Mile Delivery:
Cartage is a crucial part of last-mile delivery, the final stage of delivering products to customers. This stage is crucial in urban settings, where fast and reliable deliveries are expected.
Businesses use cartage to ensure goods move quickly from distribution centers or warehouses to retail stores or end-users, meeting tight delivery deadlines and boosting customer satisfaction.
2. Less Than Container Load (LCL) Shipping:
For businesses that don’t have enough goods to fill an entire shipping container, cartage services play a vital role. They help consolidate smaller shipments from different companies, move them to a container freight station for grouping, and then handle the final delivery once the container reaches its destination.
This makes LCL shipping more cost-effective and flexible for smaller shipments.
3. Transfers Between Local Facilities:
When goods need to be moved between terminals, ports, or local warehouses, cartage services provide the short-distance transport required.
This is especially important for businesses with multiple locations in the same city or for those needing to move items quickly between different parts of a logistics hub.
4. Urgent or Special Handling Deliveries:
Cartage is often used for urgent deliveries or goods that require special handling, such as fragile or high-value items. The short travel distance reduces the risk of damage and allows for more careful monitoring of sensitive shipments.
5. Supporting E-commerce and Retail:
As online shopping grows, businesses rely on efficient cartage to fulfill local orders quickly. Cartage ensures that products move smoothly from fulfillment centers to customers, helping companies meet rising expectations for fast delivery.
Common Challenges in Cartage
While cartage services offer clear advantages in the right scenarios, they also come with their own set of challenges that businesses must manage to maintain efficiency and reliability.
1. Limited Visibility: One of the biggest challenges is keeping track of shipments in real-time. Without clear visibility, it can be challenging to determine the location of goods, which can lead to delays or confusion, especially when multiple deliveries are being made simultaneously.
2. Coordination Issues: Coordinating pickups and drop-offs between warehouses, drivers, and customers can be tricky. Miscommunication or last-minute changes can disrupt delivery schedules and affect customer satisfaction.
3. Documentation Errors: Cartage may involve less paperwork than long-haul freight, but mistakes in delivery notes or proof of delivery can still cause problems. Missing or incorrect documents can delay shipments and confuse both senders and receivers.
4. Traffic and Urban Constraints: Delivering goods within busy cities requires navigating traffic jams, parking restrictions, and narrow streets. These factors can slow down deliveries and increase transportation costs.
5. Cost Fluctuations: Fuel prices, labor costs, and changing regulations can all impact the cost of cartage services. Businesses need to stay aware of these variables to avoid unexpected expenses.
By being aware of these common challenges, you can better prepare and find solutions that help you get the full benefit of cartage.
How Frayto Improvs Your Global Shipment Visibility with InstaTrac?
Managing shipments across international supply chains is challenging, especially when it comes to maintaining real-time oversight, keeping stakeholders informed, and ensuring all documentation is in order. This is where InstaTrac, by Frayto, steps in to streamline how your business monitors and manages your logistics operations.
InstaTrac is designed to provide end-to-end visibility and control over your shipments, regardless of their location worldwide. Its suite of features addresses many of the most common pain points in global logistics:
Track Shipments in Real Time: InstaTrac provides continuous updates on the location and status of every shipment, helping teams and customers stay informed from departure to delivery.
Receive Instant Notifications: Automated alerts notify users as shipments reach key milestones or if any issues arise, so everyone involved can respond quickly and confidently.
Centralize Document Management: All shipping documents are stored in one secure location, making it easy to access, share, and manage paperwork for both domestic and international moves.
Customize Dashboards: Users can tailor their view to focus on the shipments and data most relevant to their operations, simplifying oversight and prioritization.
Integrate Seamlessly with Existing Systems: InstaTrac connects with other logistics and ERP platforms, ensuring information flows smoothly and reducing manual data entry.
By combining real-time tracking, instant communication, and organized documentation, InstaTrac helps you avoid potential problems and deliver a more reliable experience to your customers, whether shipments are moving across town or around the globe.
Conclusion
Cartage services are a critical link in the logistics chain, enabling businesses to move goods quickly and reliably over short distances. From last-mile delivery to local warehouse transfers, understanding how and when to use cartage can lead to faster turnaround times, lower costs, and better service levels.
But as supply chains grow more complex, managing even short-haul movements demands real-time coordination and visibility. That’s where InstaTrac by Frayto becomes essential. InstaTrac empowers your team with live tracking, automated updates, and unified document access, helping you stay ahead of disruptions and confidently meet delivery promises.
Schedule your personalized demo with Frayto and see how InstaTrac simplifies local and global shipping—one smarter move at a time.Get in Touch!
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