Freight forwarder
A freight forwarder is usually a company that organizes shipments for individuals or other companies. A forwarder is a third-party (non-asset-based) logistics provider that dispatches shipments and books or arranges space for these shipments.
Freight forwarders typically arrange cargo movement to an international destination, also called international freight forwarding. They have the knowledge that allows them to perform related activities pertaining to international shipments and process the documentation about it. Commercial invoice, shipper’s export declaration, bill of lading and other documents required by the carrier or country of export, import, or transshipment – these are some typical informations related to freight forwarders job. Today this informations are processed by the computers.
The commercial position of the forwarder can be illustrated with the description “Architect of Transport”. In Europe there are forwarders that specialise in ‘niche’ areas such as railfreight and collection and deliveries around a large port. The latter are called Hafen (port) Spediteure (Port Forwarders). A forwarder in some countries may sometimes deal only with domestic traffic and never handle international traffic.
In: General Topics · Tagged with: Freight forwarder
