Pooled Shipments

A pooled shipment is a consolidation of shipments onto a load to a regional distribution or consolidation center. You create pooled shipments from the same form that you use to build loads.

To increase distribution efficiency, you pool shipments to a distribution center before sending each shipment out to its final location. This works best when the carrier sends out shipments by zones throughout the country. By pooling multiple shipments to complete a load, you reduce freight costs. You must set up an intermediate destination (the distribution center) to receive the load before distributing it to the specific final locations.

For example, assume that a company manufactures sweaters at one branch/plant. Stores across the country sell these sweaters. Instead of sending individual shipments all over the country, you pool shipments of sweaters into a load. The load's destination is a distribution center that serves several area stores. Then, from this distribution center, the shipments are sent to the local stores for sale.

To create a pooled shipment, you create a normal load and specify the intermediate destination on the Origin/Destination tab of the Load Header Revisions form. The intermediate destinations are address book numbers that you enter into each row for each shipment. If you know that a load is used for pooled shipments when it is created, you can specify the intermediate addresses in the load header. When you do so, the system automatically applies the information to each shipment that you would add.