All You Need To Know About Freight Forwarders

Freight forwarders are agents that take it upon themselves to operate the shipment of your cargo and hold responsibility in maintaining all the shipping procedures necessary.
However, they do not bear any ownership of it and do not take title of your goods.
Pricing:

A forwarders business is closely linked with maintaining good relationships with foreign agents and vice versa.
They may meet up with each other through international exhibitions or conferences such as the yearly conferences of the World Cargo Alliance. www.wcaworld.com
They execute business together based on providing each other with shipping rates and close communication throughout the whole shipping operation.
Once a customer inquires about the cost to ship cargo from point A to his premises, the forwarder sends the inquiry to the foreign agent in the sellers country.
For an Airfreight shipment, a quotation will look like this:
1- Airfreight Rate / CBM. (Chargeable Weight)
2- FSC & SSC (Fuel and Security Costs).
3-Handling Costs.
4-Delivery Order Cost.
Other costs may arise from:
1- Re-Scanning of Cargo.
2- Insurance Costs.
3- Accessorial Charges.
4- Customs Brokerage.
As for a SeaFreight shipment, a quotation will look like this:
1- EX-Works charges in case the (INCO term) is EXW.
2- SeaFreight Rate/ CBM.
3-FIO Charges (Free in/out)
4-Port Surcharge/cbm
5-Delivery Order Charges
Note: One of the most important things to inquire about a shipping quotation whether it be Airfreight or Seafreight is the validity of the quotation, transit time, the name of the airline/shipping company that will be handling it, and the Profit Share (P/S) between the forwarders.
Operation:

The usual shipping operations begins with notifying the foreign agent to provide you with information regarding the collection of cargo and providing you with the flight/shipping details (Date of Departure/Date of Arrival).
Once collection occurs and before a couple of days the departure you inform your agent to provide you with the Pre-Alerts of the shipment.
The pre-alerts are:
1- Master Bill of Lading & House Bill of Lading.
2- Country of Origin.
3- Commercial Invoice.
4- Packing List.
5- Licenses (Based on Nature of Cargo)
6- Euro1 (Case by Case)
Once you receive the documents, you check for discrepancies and closely communicate them with your client and agent in order to correct them and avoid any financial penalty that may arise.
Tracking:

One of the most important things in shipping is to always track your cargo because sometimes shipping/airline companies may face delays for unexpected reasons, or from a force majeur, hence it is important to be on the outlook of such delays.
Receipt of Cargo:
Once the cargo is received you notify your airport/seaport office of all its details and instruct them to move forward with getting the Delivery Order.
It is important to always provide your office with the pre-alerts.
Once the delivery order is taken, you inform your customer’s broker in order to take it from your office and begin with the clearing procedure. However, in some cases, freight forwarders offer their own clearing service aside from shipping.
Billing:

When the DO is taken from the customs broker, you gather all the costs that have arised from the shipment and you match them with the costs that were initially quoted by your agent in order to check if they match.
If they do, you ask your agent to send you the credit note of the profit share and at the same time prepare the invoice for your client in order to pay for the shipment.

Being knowledgeable about the game is never enough to help you succeed. You always have to rely on a diversified number of customers with high shipment turnovers and able to meet their credit terms on time.
It may seem like an easy operation to work, but alot of mistakes, unprecedented circumstances, and uncontrollable situations may arise during the whole process and could become claims that will give you a hard time solving them. However, one of the best things about being a freight forwarder is being exposed to a variety of products, communicating with international agents, and having the leisure to transport huge bulks of cargo at your fingertips.
