Overview
Sellers in Amazon’s Partnered Carriers Program can choose LTL shipping for their FBA inbound shipments. With LTL shipping, Amazon’s carriers pick up and deliver your shipment at fixed rates billed to Amazon, which are then passed on to sellers as inbound transportation costs in your Amazon settlement.
Alternatively, there is an option to use a non-partnered carrier of your choice. You may choose to use another carrier (like FedEx, UPS, or DHL) if their rates are more cost-effective than Amazon’s partnered program or when shipping hazmat products that are ineligible for Amazon’s program.
LTL non-partnered inbound shipment to FBA:
LTL Amazon-partnered inbound shipment to FBA:
LTL Non-Partnered Shipment
- In Sellercloud, search by FBA Inbound Shipment or navigate to Inventory > Manage Inventory > FBA Inbound Shipments > Create New FBA Inbound Shipment.
- In the FBA Inbound Shipment wizard, complete the necessary steps and proceed to the Boxes tab.
- In the Amazon Shipments panel, set the shipment type as LTL/FTL.
- The Pallets panel will appear because all LTL shipments must be loaded on pallets. Click the Add button and enter the loaded pallet weight and dimensions.
- Proceed to the Shipping tab > select Non-partnered as the shipping method > enter a Carrier Name and a Pro Number assigned by the carrier > click Submit Tracking to Amazon.
- Print out package and pallet labels by clicking the Print button.
- Click the green flag button to finish the shipment creation process.
LTL Amazon-Partnered Shipment
- Follow the non-partnered LTL workflow before moving to the to the Shipping step.
- In the Shipping tab, select Amazon-partnered as the shipping method > click Next.
- To request a shipping estimate from Amazon, fill in the Estimate form fields > click Request Estimate.
You can select your saved address to quickly prefill the contact info.
- The wizard will fetch shipping details from Amazon. Review and confirm the shipping estimate.
- Print out labels for the package and pallet by clicking the Print button.
Note that Amazon will provide a bill of lading within 24 hours of the pickup date and time. You can print out the BOL from the Amazon shipments page when it’s available.
- Click the green flag button to finish the shipment creation process.
Amazon partners with LTL/FTL (Partial Truckload/Full Truckload) Carriers for deliveries above lb. These carriers will pick up and deliver your FBA Inbound Shipment at a deeply discounted rate that will be billed to Amazon’s account. Amazon will pass the charge along to you as the “Inbound Transportation Charge”
on the Settlement Report.
Managing LTL Shipments to Amazon
LTL Shipments need package labels and pallet labels to be accepted at the Amazon fulfillment center.
- Create the FBA Inbound Shipment. Follow through with the instructions here until the “Filling out Shipping Info” section.
- Select Manage Shipping Boxes from the action menu.
- Select Less than Truckload from the Shipping Type Dropdown.
- Press Update.
- Fill in the required info:
- Contact Name
- Contact Email
- Contact Fax
- Contact Phone
- Seller Freight Ready Date – The date the shipment will be ready for pickup by an
Amazon Partnered LTL carrier. Since you need a Bill of Lading (BOL) which may not
be available from Amazon immediately, you should set the date to 1 or two
business days in the future
- Press Update.
- The next step is to satisfy Amazon’s requirement to provide accurate box contents
information on the packing slip.- Make sure that client setting FBA Inbound Shipment Use Unique Label
Request is not enabled. - Select Manage Box Contents from the action menu. Press Go.
- Select a package.
- Enter the unit count for every SKU in each box. Enter the unit count for every SKU
in each box. Add contents to all the boxes in the shipment. You can also import a
file to upload contents. - Depending on the box content selection that you selected at the beginning of the
shipment in the section entitle “All products continue here”), press the action to either:- Save and Update Amazon – Sends an API call to Amazon with box contents. For
example, it tells Amazon that Box 1 contains item ABC x 20. The box label (see below) identifies the box with its box number. - Save and Download Feed – Downloads a file to be uploaded on Seller Central.
- Save and Download D BarCode. The barcode sticker should be placed on the package. Read more about D Barcodes in the attached PDF.
- Save and Update Amazon – Sends an API call to Amazon with box contents. For
- Make sure that client setting FBA Inbound Shipment Use Unique Label
- Wait a few minutes to allow Amazon to process the info before continuing in SellerCloud.
- Select Print Box Labels from action menu. Press Go. Labels will be saved to PDF for
printing and fixing to each box. Box contents will print on each label respectively. - Press Add New Pallet.
- Add weight and dimensions include the pallet in the calculations. Make sure the correct
UOM is selected. - Add additional pallets. (Unlike on Seller Central, a separate row is needed for each
pallet.) Check Copy Dimensions if applicable. - Press Update.
- Select Request Shipping Estimate from action menu. Press Go.
- Select Get Shipping Estimate from action menu. Press Go.
- If your satisfied with the estimate select Confirm Shipping Estimate from action
menu. Press Go. - Select Print Pallet Labels from action menu. Labels will be saved to PDF for printing and
fixing to each pallet. - For Amazon Partnered LTL shipments, a BOL will be generated within 24 hours of the
pickup date and time. Use the action Get Bill of Lading to retrieve the BOL from Amazon. - Repeat process for all shipments, or return for other shipment at a later time.
- Continue with marking the shipment as Shipped in SellerCloud. This will move inventory
from the Ship From warehouse into the Interim warehouse.
Marking the Shipment as Shipped in SellerCloud
- Select Ship Boxes from action menu.
- Select a Ship From Warehouse and an Interim Warehouse.
- Select shipments you want to ship.
- Press the Ship Items button at the bottom of the page.