General cargo

In the field of logistics, everything that can be transported in one piece is called general cargo. Whether it is a small transport unit such as a parcel or a large unit such as a whole pallet is irrelevant. General cargo that is combined into larger units is called collective cargo.

These groupage shipments make sense because individually transported general cargo does not fully utilise the transport volume and the vehicle payload. General cargo generally cannot be classified into a certain size category, because goods fall into this category, which can be transported by forklift truck as well as take up whole truckloads.

Bundling general cargo

In principle, we speak of universal cargo if no special transport containers are required for the goods. This means that unpackaged grain, sand, coal or similar materials are not considered general cargo, but bulk or absorbent goods. Liquids and gases which are pumped into a tank without their own container are not general cargo either.

In earlier times, general cargo was loaded into so-called general cargo wagons or general cargo ships. Nowadays, containers are used for this purpose, which can be transported by different means of transport, for example trucks or ships. A customer delivery consisting of several individual parts should be combined into larger packages, for example in cartons or pallets. The packages are called packages and should be loaded as individual pieces to be handled separately.