"Cheapest" depends almost entirely on size, and the honest answer changes twice as a shipment grows. Below one threshold a courier beats every forwarder; above another, a full container beats everything per unit. The expensive mistakes happen when a shipment is bought with the wrong channel for its size.
The short answer
Roughly: courier under ~70 kg, ocean LCL from about one pallet to a half container, ocean FCL once you fill most of a container. Air sits above all of them on price and below all of them on transit. The crossovers move with lane and season, so treat them as a starting point and check both sides of the boundary when your shipment sits near one.
Where each channel wins
| Channel | Sweet spot | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Courier | Small, light, urgent; under ~70 kg | Volumetric weight on bulky boxes; brokerage fees on higher-value goods |
| Air freight | Urgent, high value density, ~100 kg+ | Airport-to-airport quotes that exclude both door legs |
| Ocean LCL | ~1–15 CBM | Destination charges, which are where LCL surprises live |
| Ocean FCL | Filling most of a 20ft or 40ft | Detention and demurrage if you cannot unload quickly |
The LCL-to-FCL crossover is worth checking properly rather than assuming: around 13–15 CBM a 20ft container often costs less than the equivalent LCL, and comes with fewer handling points. The comparison is in FCL vs LCL.
Six levers that cut cost without switching provider
- Consolidate orders. Two shipments a month instead of four usually costs less than half as much again, because fixed charges are per shipment, not per kilo.
- Fix your packaging. Ocean LCL and air both charge for volume. Shorter pallets, better cartonisation and stackable loads reduce the chargeable figure directly — check with the CBM calculator.
- Move the Incoterm. Buying FOB instead of a supplier-arranged DDP often reveals a freight margin you were paying without seeing.
- Negotiate free time, not just rate. Extra free days are frequently easier to win than a lower rate and worth more in practice.
- Flex the ready date. Avoiding peak-season and pre-holiday spikes can beat any negotiation — see peak season.
- Get more quotes. Irregular shippers have no benchmark; competition supplies one. Post a freight request and compare.
The false economies
- The cheapest quote with three free days. One customs query and the demurrage exceeds the saving — model it with the D&D calculator.
- Skipping cargo insurance. Carrier liability is capped far below cargo value; see cargo insurance.
- Under-declaring value. Illegal, and it invalidates insurance.
- Ocean when you needed air. Six weeks of stock-out costs more than the air premium would have.
Compare on landed cost
The number that matters is landed cost per unit — goods, freight, duty, taxes, brokerage, destination charges and delivery. A channel that looks 20% cheaper on freight can be more expensive per unit once duty and destination charges land. Work it through with landed cost forecast checks, and normalise quotes first using the comparison method.
The broader playbook is in how to reduce international freight costs.
