Mixing tricycles and scooters in one 40HQ

Two categories, one container, one bill of lading. It is the most efficient way to test a tricycle programme, and the arithmetic is the only hard part.

Why mix at all

A 50-piece tricycle trial is about 2 CBM. Shipping 2 CBM on its own is uneconomic by sea, because freight is charged per container rather than per carton. Put those cartons inside a container you were already filling with scooters and the marginal cost of testing tricycles becomes almost nothing.

There is a second reason, and it is the commercial one: the buyer who lists scooters gets asked for a tricycle. Carrying both on one order means one supplier, one inspection, one set of documents, and one arrival date.

The two cartons are not comparable

A tricycle occupies roughly 2.5 to 3 times the container volume of a scooter. That single ratio is what makes a mixed load either work or fail: you cannot think in pieces, you have to think in cartons.

The method, in four lines

• Cartons per line = pieces ÷ pieces per carton, rounded up.
• CBM per line = cartons × CBM per carton.
• Sum the CBM and keep it at or below 65 for a 40HQ.
• Ship pieces = cartons × pieces per carton. A part-full carton still ships as a carton.

We plan a mixed load against 65 CBM — the figure the scooter carton calculates to — rather than the 68 a tricycle-only load reaches. Understating the container costs nothing. Overstating it means the last cartons do not go on the vessel.

A worked example: 200 tricycles plus 4,040 scooters

Sixty-four point nine CBM against 65 available. That is a full container with 200 tricycles inside it, and the tricycle block cost you 7.93 CBM out of 65 — about 12% of the container for four new models.

The rules that keep it legal and loadable

• MOQ applies per model, per category. 50 pcs of a tricycle and 50 pcs of a scooter are two minimums, not one.
• One supplier of record. Mixing categories only simplifies documents if one company invoices the whole container. That is the reason we sell scooters and tricycles from the same office.
• Carton footprints should match where possible. A 76 x 56 tricycle carton stacks cleanly with a 69 x 32 scooter carton only in one orientation — the loading plan has to decide that before the truck arrives.
• Heavy at the bottom. Tricycle cartons weigh more per carton than scooter cartons. Load them low and forward, and keep the door row for the lightest cartons.

What the documents look like

One commercial invoice, one packing list broken down by model and category, one bill of lading. The packing list is where a mixed container earns its keep: if it lists cartons by model with CBM and gross weight, your broker can value each line separately without a second set of paperwork.