There are plenty of people that will send a parcel, package or have larger volumes of goods sent from one place to another but many of them will not stop to consider what goes on behind closed doors during the part in between their belongings leaving their possession and being delivered at their destination. What does happen in this transparent space is the job of freight forwarders and this is what we’ll be looking at in this post.

Freight forwarders are the entities that make everything happen that needs to happen in order that your belongings or good are transported to their destination with the minimum of fuss, as economically as possible and on time while ensuring that they are in profit for their services.

Now for those who will send a parcel in the mail, they may not even consider what a freight forwarder is, or even that the term exists, because the delivery is handled by the mail, right?

Well, that’s right in one sense, but in another, the mail service is also a freight forwarder in its own right. This will be explained when I explain just what a freight forwarding company does, then you’ll see why the mail is just another for5m of freight forwarding.

There is a lot of planning and strategy that goes on to calculate the best, most efficient way of getting your goods, no matter how large or how small, from their point of origin to their destination. It all has to happen so that the price the customer pays is competitive, or they simply will not be a customer. It also has to happen so that within that price, the company makes a profit or there would be no company!

So detailed logistics are calculated to make sure that your goods are transported to where they have to be using the most economical yet professional means at their disposal. This will involve road haulage companies, perhaps rail freight companies, shipping companies for overseas shipments, air freight companies for air transportation, delivery vans and their drivers for the shorter distances across town and all the costs that each of these aspects incurs, such as fuel costs, wages for drivers, loaders, packers, warehouse staff etc.

Distances, road routes and timings also have to be calculated as well as whether loads can be shared on trucks coming and going to the same or nearby locations to reduce costs.

If all that wasn’t enough, then there’s all the documentation that needs to be completed from invoices, time sheets, collection and delivery dockets, bill of lading and custom clearance paperwork for international shipments, insurance coverage for the entire journey including any storage or warehousing that is required.

So you see, there is quite a lot that goes on behind the scenes that most people are blissfully unaware of with regards to the important and often underestimated job of the freight forwarders.

Freight