The U.S. Defense Logistics Agency is focusing on more fully utilizing space in ocean containers through consolidating shipments rather than splitting up shipments for individual customers, according to a report this week by Defense News.
The agency had often left containers as much as one-third empty in an attempt to avoid combining shipments from two different customers.
“More recently, planners have been consolidating goods for multiple endpoints, shipping these consolidated containers to a single receiving station and then breaking down deliveries by recipient,” the report said. “This already had been done to some degree in Europe; now DLA has added such receiving points in Japan, Guam and South Korea.”
Brad Bellis, chief of depot operations in DLA’s distribution operations, told the news outlet that every 1 percent of cargo added to an average container it ships can save the government $3 million to $4 million per year.
Typical items moved by DLA are repair parts, clothing, and construction material, ibut can also include larger cargo like generator systems and forklifts.
The new packing methods have already been rolled out at DLA’s four main shipping locations — Susquehanna, Pa.; San Joaquin, Calif.; Warner Robbins, Ga.; and Norfolk, Va. — and are being put into play at the agency’s 26 distribution depots worldwide, the report said.
DLA focuses more on fully loaded containers
