Ocean freight forwarders deal specifically with the international transportation of goods as third party intermediates between the client and the shipping company. This article looks at some of the ways in which the form of shipping is carried out and how it compares with other forms of international goods transportation.
The simplest way to describe the methods used by ocean freight forwarding companies is to follow the line of work starting with the client. The client will have a consignment of goods ranging in size and value from a small personal package to a full container load or even a batch of containers with a variety of goods that need to be transported from their place of manufacture to a foreign country where they will then be distributed throughout a national network of transportation and logistics companies to their final destination. In the case of a single package, this will be a single location of a private dwelling or perhaps an office, store or work place. In the case of larger consignments, there could be multiple destinations which could comprise warehouses situated in a variety of locatons arund the destination country, or in some cases the goods will arrive at the port of one country and the goods will then be distributed to other countries on the continent, meaning they will pass across several borders in their fragmented journeys to arrive at a receiving depot in the countries they are destined for.
From there, each country will have a national network of delivery companies that will then distribute the goods to wholesalers and retailers or businesses as deemed by the nature of the goods. The delivery process can become quite complicated when a large consignment of goods is destined for many different locations and can be divided into smaller consignments which will be distributed from the first delivery depot to many smaller depots and from each of these, a further division of the goods will wind up being delivered to the smaller outlets as needed.
In the United States, an ocean freight forwarder who is primarily or solely involved with international ocean shipping and transportation will need to be licensed as an Ocean Transportation Intermediary by a government body known as the Federal Maritime Commission. In the United Kingdom, freight forwarders are not licensed. However many are members of an association known as the British International Freight Association. In the UK, freight forwarders consolidate a variety of goods originating from different consignors into a single full load destined for Europe via road transport using cross-channel ferries or the Channel Tunnel and this is generally known as groupage.
Other countries have different rules regarding the regulation and licensing of freight forwarding companies and these should be ascertained in your country for verification.
Ocean freight compares with other forms of international shipping favourably in that it is often the cheapest method of transportation, especially for large, bulky or awkward loads. It is also the slowest, so there is a trade off between cost versus speed of delivery with other forms such as air freight being much faster but far more expensive.
