FREIGHT FORWARDER.  It is essentially a very important term that you must have heard of, especially if you are in the logistics business or searching for the best service provider. If you still alien about this particular term and other prominent things like what is a benefit of hiring a freight forwarder, how to select the professional freight company and how you can actually save money through freight forwarders? These are some of the major questions that you must be aware of and if not, then I plan to touching all these questions and make your task a lot easier.

A freight forwarder is primarily a third party logistics provider that provides a great helping hand in the smooth transportation of goods between a business and a logistics company. Are you still not able to understand the term? Well, let us understand it more briefly.

A freight forwarder is typically a specialist that provides a significant amount of assistance to the people and companies (big or small) transport goods from a manufacturer to the desired market or to the prominent foreign locations. However, what is imperative to note here is that the freight forwarders do not actually deliver the shipment; rather they employ and supervise carriers to transport the cargo. It is also essential that the forwarders must be expert in their work and most importantly also possess an excellent knowledge when it comes to calculation of the costs, providing great inputs on the packing methods, kind of carrier (whether air, rail and highway) to be used and extremely efficient in the import and export rules, kinds of documents required for international shifting and so on.

BENEFITS OF HIRRING FRIEGHT FORWARDERS

It cannot be denied that for the swift and hassle free movement of the goods, freight forwards plays a very key role. They bring various prominent benefits to the table, which are as follows:

Analyzing the Excellent and Right Route

The main benefit that a freight forwarder offers to the clients is that he analyzes the excellent and right route for the purpose of moving the items. With their in depth experience and knowledge, they are able to recommend the best route to the customers that will consume a minimum amount of time to deliver the goods swiftly.  

Identifying the Correct Mode of Transport

After helping the companies or individuals to select the right route, they decide the correct mode of transport like air, rail, road, sea; etc will be suitable to transport the goods. They arrive at their decision after taking into the consideration the kind of items to be moved and the delivery date they need to be delivered to the market.

Keeping a Close Look on the Packaging

It is one of the most important benefits of the freight forwarder. They keep a close tab on the quality of the packing materials, which are used for the purpose of packing the goods. Besides this, they also have a great knowledge about the terms and conditions and other essential things required for the hassle free delivery of the items.

Negotiating with the Brokers or Middlemen

A company or an individual that has hired the services of the freight forwarder, only required to make the final bill to the forwarder. You are relieved from all the stress because, it is ultimately the responsibility of the forwarder to make further payments to the middle men, which he had hired for delivering the items. The notable thing here is that they have an excellent relationship with the renowned logistics companies and can help a lot in negotiating better deals, which in turn helps a lot in cutting the transportation cost.

Taking Care of all Major Formalities

It is duty of the freight forwarders to take care of all the major paperwork and other formalities to make the transportation of goods error free. They also help a lot in getting the required license and permissions for delivery goods to other locations.

Getting the Right Insurance Plans

The freight forwarder can also provide a great degree of assistance in arranging the right insurance plans from the third party or from the transportation company. If in case your goods are damaged or does not arrive in time as mentioned in the agreement, then you will get the good compensation for the loss you have suffered.

Updating Clients about Movement of Goods

Once the items have been moved from the port or airport, then the work of the freight forwarder is not assumed as complete. He closely monitors the movements of the belongings and regularly updates the clients. They make use of the advanced technologies like GPS and other things to gather valuable information about the current position of the items.

Clearing the Goods from Customs

The freight forwarders make sure that the when the goods are transported to their desired destination, then they do not face any hurdles passing through the customs. Forwarders make sure that the items are cleared through the customs easily and moved to the international locations without any hassles.

FINDING BEST AND PROFESSIONAL FRIEGHT FORWARDERS

It is quite necessary to seek the assistance of the professional freight forwarders to make sure that that the items are being transported without any kind of the major bottlenecks. However, it cannot also be overlooked that the market is flooded with the lots of freight service providers and the task of finding the right one becomes challenging. To make sure that you do not fall into the trap of fake service providers, here some of the prominent questions you must ask to the freight forwarders:

Are Your Prices Transparent?

It is important that all the details related to the transportation of the goods must be transparent to avoid the chances of any dispute later. You must ask the freight forwarder service provider to give in detail about the different kinds of the charges you will be required to pay.

Will you take the Responsibility for the delivery or transportation of goods?

The freight service providing company must be always ready to take responsibility for any problems arising in the transportation of items and handle them efficiently.

Will You Update About the Movement of My Goods?

Everybody would certainly hate to make numerous calls to the freight forwarder just for the purpose of knowing about the current location of the items. It no doubt also leads to the wastage of precious time and money. The forwarder must be responsible to update you on the regular basis about the movement of goods thereby offering you enough time to concentrate your attention on the other priority areas.

Are you duly registered?

The freight service providing company must be duly registered from the concerned authorities. If it has not got a proper registration number, then there is no point seeking the services from them.

Can you provide me the Excellent References?

The freight forwarding company must not hesitate at all in offering the excellent references for the purpose of cross checking from the past clients about the quality of services, cost and other things.

Will You Protect My Goods through Insurance?

The forwarder must provide the insurance to the clients for protecting the goods from any kind of the damage.

Is your Terms and Condition Easy to Understand?

The terms and condition agreement of the freight forwarder must be simple and should not contain any kind of the jargon words, which are quite difficult to understand. Furthermore, the agreement must not also contain any kind of the hidden costs.

Therefore, it is crystal clear that availing the services of the best freight forwarder can really help a lot in saving a lot of time and stress. It is vital that the services, which a forwarder is offering must be world class and provided at the competent rates. All in all, when planning to transport your goods to any domestic or international location, hiring the professional freight forwarders is always the BEST bet.