Glossary

Container Freight Station (CFS)

A cargo handling facility where less than container load freight from several shippers is consolidated into shared containers at origin and deconsolidated out of them at destination.

An LCL shipment passes through a CFS at both ends of the move: the origin station stuffs loose cargo from several shippers into a shared container, and the destination station strips the container so each consignment can be delivered to its own consignee. Whether cargo touches a CFS at all follows from the booking decision between LCL and FCL; an FCL container is sealed at the shipper's premises and travels intact to the consignee, so it never needs the stuffing and stripping a CFS exists for. A CFS is not the same as a CY (container yard): the CY handles full containers, while the CFS handles the loose cargo being stuffed into or stripped out of containers.