Forwarders contract with a carrier or often multiple carriers to move the goods. A forwarder
does not move the goods but acts as an expert in the logistics network. These carriers can use a
variety of shipping modes, including ships, airplanes, trucks, and railroads, and often do utilize
multiple modes for a single shipment. For example, the freight forwarder may arrange to have
cargo moved from a plant to an airport by truck, flown to the destination city, and then moved
from the airport to a customer's building by another truck.
Information typically reviewed by a freight forwarder includes the commercial invoice, shipper's
export declaration, bill of lading and other documents required by the carrier or country
of export, import, and/or transshipment. Much of this information is now processed in
a paperless environment.
Definitions:-
1) Carrier- is a person or company that transports goods or people for any person or
company and that is responsible for any possible loss of the goods during transport.
2) Bill of lading- A bill of lading (sometimes abbreviated as B/L or BoL) is a document issued
by a carrier (or their agent) to acknowledge receipt of cargo for shipment.
A bill of Lading must be transferable, and serves three main functions:
5) Customs house agent (CHA)- a customs house agent (CHA) is licensed to act as an
agent for transaction of any business relating to the entry or departure of conveyances or
the import or export of goods at a customs station. CHAs maintain detailed, itemized and
up-to-date accounts. A CHA license may be temporary or permanent.
6) Free on board (FOB)- "Free On Board", is a term in international commercial
law specifying at what point respective obligations, costs, and risk involved in the delivery of
goods shift from the seller to the buyer under the Incoterms 2010 standard published by
the International Chamber of Commerce. FOB is only used in non-containerized sea freight
or inland waterway transport. As with all Incoterms, FOB does not define the point at which
ownership of the goods is transferred.
The term FOB is also used in modern domestic shipping within the United States to describe
the point at which a seller is no longer responsible for shipping cost.
Ownership of a cargo is independent from Incoterms. In international trade, ownership of
the cargo is defined by the bill of lading or waybill.
Types of containers
1) Dry storage container
The most commonly used shipping containers; they come in various dimensions standardized
by ISO. They are used for shipping of dry materials and come in size of 20ft, 40 ft and 10ft.
2. Flat rack container
With collapsible sides, these are like simple storage shipping containers where the sides can be
folded so as to make a flat rack for shipping of wide variety of goods.
4. Tunnel container
Container storage units provided with doors on both ends of the container, they are extremely
helpful in quick loading and unloading of materials.
14. Drums
As the name suggests, circular shipping containers, made from a choice of materials like steel,
light weight metals, fiber, hard plastic etc. they are most suitable for bulk transport of liquid
materials. They are smaller in size but due to their shape, may need extra space.
15. Special purpose containers
Not the ordinary containers, these are the container units, custom made for specialized
purposes. Mostly, they are used for high profile services like shipment of weapons and arson.
As such, their construction and material composition depends on the special purpose they need
to cater to. But in most cases, security remains the top priority.