About Freight Forwarders
A freight forwarder is a third party vendor that brokers and manages the transportation logistics of a shipment. They are used primarily when goods are destined for shipping overseas.
Many freight forwarders are large, multinational corporations with locations all over the world. Several have ISO 9001 certification to assure quality. Some forwarders specialize in shipping to specific regions or have especially strong ties to one country. For example, there are many freight forwarders with headquarters in Japan and that gives them a competitive advantage for shipments destined for that country.
Freight forwarders contract with trucking companies, rail roads, ocean and air carriers, as well as import agents overseas. In addition, they prepare paperwork and present or file documents on behalf of the exporter of record. Because of this, a power of attorney must be filled out by exporters granting authority to the freight forwarder to sign documents on the exporter’s behalf.
Good service, however, can be hard to find. As many as ten different companies may unload and reload freight as it makes its way to its final destination. Errors and mistakes are frequent and it is difficult to maintain control of a shipment once it has changed hands.
Freight forwarders are often left to deal with the mistakes of others, whether it’s an error by the exporter or a rail road. Further, fixing problems is difficult because transportation is deadline driven. If the trucker fails to deliver freight to the rail road on time, then goods may not arrive at the port of export by the cut off. In which case, there’s little that can be done to correct the situation other than push for a credit from the trucking company. Once time is lost, it can’t be regained, which is devastating when time lines are critical.
Obtaining good service from a freight forwarder entails carefully selecting the freight forwarding companies and carefully screening the people in their employ for expertise. It is also a good idea to develop business relationships with more than one freight forwarder as part of a larger international supply chain strategy.
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