Freight vs. Shipping: What Are the Differences?
Running a small business can be rewarding work, as many in this role across the country could tell you. In fact, running a small business is often ranked as one of the most satisfying jobs you could have.
However, there’s a lot to learn about and get on top of as a small business owner. If you’re selling products around the country or the world, shipping is one such challenge. You’ll need to learn a lot, including the differences between freight vs. shipping.
In a casual setting, these words are often used interchangeably. But what’s the real difference and how might it impact you?
Read on and we’ll walk you through the basics in our shipping vs. freight guide.
What Is Freight?
Let’s start with the former term. Freight actually, loosely speaking, refers to the product that’s being transferred. More conversationally, when people talk about freight, they talk about goods and products being transported by land, air, or sea.
The main thing to keep in mind with freight shipments? This term is often being used to describe a bulk amount of goods. When we talk about freight, we usually are talking about huge quantities of a specific product, perhaps tons of one kind of material.
Freight is often broken down into many mini categories as well. With truck transport, for example, there are a number of variations: full truckload freight, and less than truckload freight, among others.
Often, but not always, freight shipments are handled by the company that owns and produces the product.
What Is Shipping?
Shipping has a lot of overlap with freight. It also refers to the movement of goods and products via land, air, and sea. However, with shipping, it’s possible to be talking about a much smaller quantity of goods.
In fact, shipping could refer to the movement of even a solitary good from a seller to a buyer through a form of transportation.
While shipping originally came from the idea of sea transport, the term is now used for any kind of delivery and transportation of goods. Often, when we talk about shipping, we’re referring to a third-party service that’s moving goods on the behalf of a business.
Shipping can also be non-commercial, referring to the exchange of items between 2 people. There are many different ways to ship goods and products around the world, and it’s well worth looking into some shipping advice if you’re going to be doing this in the near future.
At the end of the day, shipping and freight are two parts of a Venn Diagram with a big overlap, but with some key differences in what they’re referring to.
Understanding Freight vs. Shipping
If you’re going to be sending your product around the world, it’s important that you understand the differences between freight vs. shipping. Knowing the right terminology to use can ensure things at your business run smoothly.
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