What is Freight Forwarding: Everything You Need to Know About It
What is freight forwarding?
A freight forwarding company is an intermediary providing a whole host of logistic services required to move cargo from the manufacturing point (point of origin) to the desired destination. The destination point can be domestic or international. Using a network of third parties or own infrastructure facilities, a freight forwarding company handles and delivers cargo.
While handling the cargo, the company ensures the safety and timely delivery of goods. These companies use different transportation modes like air, ship, road, and rail to transport goods. To transport goods, freight forwarding companies enlist a dependable network of people that includes:
- Carriers
- Insurers
- Custom agents
- Advisers
The network comes in handy during the entire transportation process and is well equipped to handle all kinds of contingencies.
What are the tasks performed by the freight forwarding company?
Some of the tasks performed by a freight forwarding company include:
- It decides the best route to be taken for the transportation of cargo. These companies have years of experience and are experts. They are aware of the fastest, dependable, and cheapest mode to transport cargo at any part of the world at any time. They have expertise in handling emergency situations, adverse weather, delays, re-routing with minimal impact on the delivery schedule.
- It must process and prepare all the necessary documents for local or international routes. It ensures full compliance to rules and regulations to avoid any legal action or penalty in case of inadvertent violation of the law.
- Book consignments with efficient carriers. They have an extensive and influential network that offers the best solution at a reasonable price. The sharing of networks is economically efficient and much faster.
- One important task in the transport chain is proper documentation in destination countries importing goods. To limit the use of paper, electronic format is promoted.
- To monitor cargo movement on land, sea, or air and provide the information to the client.
- A freight forwarding company often acts as a customs broker and work for custom and other formalities.
Freight forwarding’s primary responsibility is to transfer cargo to its destination safely.
What are the challenges faced by the freight forwarding company?
The challenges faced by the companies include:
- Compliance with product-related rules and regulations.
- Preparing the necessary documents that accompany the cargo and are passed on to different parties during transportation. It includes bills, certificate of origin and destination country, specified goods and quantity, etc.
- Passing the relevant and detailed information regarding the consignment, to other parties involved in handling and transporting cargo, by adhering to regulatory procedures.
- Dealing with the complicated procedure of any change (mode of transport) during the transport, which requires the respective changes in the documents.
- Dealing with change in ownership of goods and transportation involved.
- Ensuring the safe transport of cargo.
What are the benefits of utilizing the services of a freight forwarding company?
Some of the benefits of a freight forwarding company are :
- Better efficiency
Freight forwarding companies provide the best cost-effective solutions to transport cargo and take care of logistics across the ocean and air freight.
- Handle customs and paperwork
All ancillary services are taken care of by a freight forwarding company that includes documents for:
- Cargo Insurance
- Customs Clearance and Paperwork
- Non-vessel Operating common carrier documents
- Bills of lading
- Warehousing documentation
Without necessary documentation, fines or penalties are imposed, and freight forwarders’ documentation simplifies the entire process.
- Providing cargo insurance
It is necessary to insure goods against loss or damage before transportation. However, it is expensive for a party to do the insurance of the goods by themselves. A freight forwarding company includes comprehensive insurance of goods in its standard package deal.
- Quick delivery
An efficient freight forwarding company can move consignment from supplier to destination point without hassle. It can handle all the requirements in between. By exploiting the commercial relationships and channels in the supply chain and using an experienced workforce, a freight forwarder can cut down the time by weeks during the entire process.
How to select a good freight forwarding company?
It is vital to select a freight forwarding company that meets the expectations. Some of the required parameters are :
- Air and Ocean freight handling license
A good freight forwarding company must possess licenses with the IATA and FMC (Ocean) and TSA (air), or an NVOCC (Non-vessel Operating common carrier) where-ever applicable.
- Work experience is essential.
A large company with years of experience, staff, partnerships is essential while selecting a freight forwarding company. Large companies leverage their network to deliver consignment swiftly.
- Freight warehouse solutions
If warehousing is required, check whether the freight forwarding company can make the arrangements. If yes, look into terms and conditions before selecting.
- Pricing
It is important to understand all aspects of charges levied by freight forwarding companies. Transparency in pricing is the key to selecting the company.
- Range of services
It is crucial to ascertain if the company can be trusted and also the range of services offered. Details about the company in the public domain can help in making an informed decision.
Important things to know about freight forwarding companies
- Not responsible for delays
A freight forwarding company isn’t responsible for the delay in delivery of the consignment. However, the efficiency of a company is determined by how effectively it delivered the consignment.
- Complications are part of the business.
Freight transportation has many difficulties, and complexities may arise at any time. Even if a freight forwarding company is efficient but sometimes problems may occur that are out of control, so it is prudent not to work in haste.
- Terminate the contract if required
If your freight forwarding company is consistently negligent in the proper execution of duties leading to fines/penalties or delay in transportation, it is advisable to terminate the contract. There are plenty of freight forwarders with good past records available.
- Building a relationship
It is crucial to select a freight forwarding company with a fully integrated logistics solutions provider. The company should have a vast global network that is strong and efficient.
Freight forwarding companies are instrumental in running international trade. It is a specialized field with expertise in logistics and supply-chain management. Freight forwarding is the invisible hand that moves the cargo within and beyond borders. It requires complete administrative knowledge, custom expertise, and a vast strategic network of partnerships to be successful.
Why choose Bin Yousef Cargo?
Bin Yousef Cargo is one of the leaders in the freight forwarding industry. Established in 1985, it has truly emerged as a dominant, fully integrated logistics solutions provider.
With a vast network of partnerships across 180 countries, it provides a complete range of required services in freight movement across the world. For over 35 years, they have been delivering industry-leading freight forwarding solutions with the help of the strong network of agents that it has developed. This way, it has been empowering the business and fostering growth in Qatar and around the world alike.
Bin Yousef cargo is a one-stop solution to all your needs related to freight movement. The specialties include Sea Freight, Air Cargo, 3PL & 4PL Services, FTL, Project-Cargo Handling, Warehousing, Equine Logistics, Time-critical Logistics, White-glove services, Comprehensive Relocation Services, Customs clearance, and other Bespoke logistic solutions.