What is a general cargo?
General cargo refers to goods that can be transported in one piece. It can be a package as well as a pallet, a barrel or a crate. Liquid cargoes such as milk, gasoline, gases or chemicals, on the other hand, are not referred to as general cargo.
Similarly, sand, gravel or other debris is not referred to as general cargo. As a rule, the dimensions for general cargo are between a forklift, a truckload or the dimensions of a container. Larger general cargo is usually shipped by heavy haulage. The term consolidated cargo is often used in conjunction with general cargo.
However, groupage is more likely to mean the aggregation of several unit loads and the use of space in a transport process. So far, there is no uniform rule on the extent to which the boundary can be drawn to the package. For parcel shipping, the weight is said to be about 40-50 kg. For a delivery above this weight, a general cargo shipper should be contracted. The customer should ask for the exact sizes and weights from any transport service or carrier.
