Tim's mom is really proud of her new business. She sells handmade dolls at craft fairs and toy shops. She started out by selling her dolls at the neighborhood toy store, but her dolls were so popular that soon many other toy stores wanted to sell them too.

Tim's mom soon had so many orders for dolls she had to hire people to help her make them. Today, she's received her biggest order ever, and it could be her big break. A company in Los Angeles, USA wants to buy 5,000 of the dolls. The company will then sell the dolls in stores all over the US. And that means millions of people will see the beautiful dolls Tim's mom makes.

Tim's mom quickly starts making lists. She can get enough supplies. And if she hires a few more workers she can get all the dolls made in time. But how will she get the dolls from Malaysia—where she and her family live—all the way to Los Angeles?

Tim's mom calls a shipping company and learns that her 5,000 dolls will fill about half a cargo container. She can't afford to rent a whole container if her dolls are only going to fill half of it. It would be much better, she realizes, if she could share the container with someone else who also just needs half a container. But how can she do that? Does she need to call every other small business in Malaysia to find out if anyone else needs half a container going to Los Angeles at the same time she does?

Luckily she doesn't have to do that. Instead, she can ask ACS (short for American Consolidated Services) to help her "consolidate" or combine her shipment with someone else.

ACS is a sister company of shipping company APL. It works with small businesses—like Tim's mom's doll business—that need to make "Less than Container Load" (or LCL) shipments. ACS finds shippers to fill ¼ or ½ of a container and then gets all these products loaded and shipped safely to their destinations. And that makes life a lot easier for small shippers like Tim's mom.

But consolidation isn't just for small businesses. In fact, many large businesses use consolidation too. Many of them do what's called "multi-country consolidation." Can you figure out what that means? To find out, read this Boomerang Box trade topic on cargo consolidation and then write a paragraph about what you learn.

Cargo containers like the Boomerang Box come in standard sizes. But cargo doesn't. So it's not too surprising that cargo consolidation is an important part of shipping!

Study Question:

In the days before containers were used, consolidation wasn't needed. Why not? Read this trade topic on the history of shipping and write a 1-page essay on what you learn.

Check out past Trade Topics entries!