What services can international freight forwarders provide?
What services can international freight forwarders provide?
Freight forwarder, also known as freight forwarder, is the abbreviation for international freight forwarder. It refers to an enterprise that accepts the commission of the consignee, shipper, or carrier of import and export goods, accepts the commission of the shipper in the name of the principal or in its own name, acts as an agent for chartering, booking, loading, preparing relevant documents, customs declaration, inspection, insurance, container transportation, dismantling and assembling containers, issuing bills of lading, settling freight and miscellaneous fees, and even presents documents for negotiation and foreign exchange settlement, and collects service fees.
International freight forwarding services:
Serve Customs
When a freight forwarder acts as a customs agent to handle customs procedures related to imported and exported goods, it not only represents its customers, but also represents the customs authorities.
In fact, in many countries, he has obtained permission from these authorities to handle customs procedures and is responsible to the customs. He is responsible for declaring the exact amount, quantity, and name of the goods in the early issued documents, so that the government will not suffer losses in these aspects.
Serve the carrier
The freight forwarder shall book the cargo space with the carrier in a timely manner, negotiate fair and reasonable fees for both the shipper and the carrier, arrange appropriate delivery time, and resolve freight accounts with the carrier in the name of the shipper.
Serving airlines
Freight forwarders act as agents for airlines in the air freight industry. It is designated as the agent of the International Air Transport Association for the purpose of air cargo transportation in the rules formulated at the International Air Transport Association conference. In this relationship, it utilizes the airline's freight means to serve the cargo owner and is paid a commission by the airline. Meanwhile, as a freight forwarder, it continues to serve shippers or consignees by providing services that are suitable for air freight.
Serve the shipping company
The relationship between freight forwarders and shipping companies varies depending on their business. In recent years, the LCL service provided by freight forwarders, namely the consolidation service of LCL cargo, has established a closer connection between them and shipping companies and other carriers (such as railways). However, some countries refuse to pay commissions to freight forwarders, so they are striving for commission requirements worldwide.
Provide LCL service
With the growth of intermediate loading transportation in international trade, the introduction of consolidation and LCL services, freight forwarders play the role of principals in providing such services. The basic meaning of consolidation and LCL (Less than Container Load) is to collect small pieces of goods sent by several shippers from one shipping location to several consignees at another destination, and send them as a whole shipment to the destination freight forwarder, through which the single cargo is delivered to each consignee.
The freight forwarder issues a bill of lading, which means that the bill of lading or other similar receipts are handed over to the shipper of each shipment; The agent at the destination port of the freight forwarder shall deliver the initial bill of lading to the consignee. The consignee and consignor of LCL do not directly contact the carrier. For the carrier, the freight forwarder is the shipper, and the agent of the freight forwarder at the destination port is the consignee.
Therefore, the carrier issues a full bill of lading or waybill to the freight forwarder. If the shipper or consignee has special requirements, the freight forwarder can also engage in pick-up and delivery services at the place of shipment and destination, providing door-to-door services.
