Chapter 1. Freight Forwarding: Advantages & Disadvantages
Chapter 2. Freight forwarding: Managing risk
Chapter 3. General conditions for freight forwarding
References
Glossary
Chapter 1. Freight Forwarding: Advantages & Disadvantages
As wholesale and manufacturing companies grow and expand, figuring out how to keep up with the number of shipments that need to be sent to customers domestically and abroad becomes increasingly challenging. Some larger companies choose to keep up by expanding their own in-house shipping function, but typically this requires a great deal of investment in logistics to bring in the human and other resources – skills and technology chief among them – needed to keep things running smoothly.
For some companies, this kind of investment is either impossible or undesirable. Smaller companies often cannot afford the resources to manage higher volumes of international and other complex shipping requirements. Other companies may simply prefer to keep their focus on the things they do best – building and selling great products – and leave the work of getting those products to their destinations to companies that specialize in these important business functions.
What’s a small or medium-sized manufacturer to do when they need to move products to countries or regions where they lack contacts and knowledge to manage the logistics process? Companies have several options for handling this situation: one of the most popular is freight forwarding.
1.1 What is Freight Forwarding?
Freight forwarding is a business arrangement in which a third party company arranges storage and shipping of merchandise on behalf of its customers.
If you read our article on third party logistics, you might be wondering the difference is between freight forwarding and 3PL. If so, you’re not alone: many in the logistics industry are asking themselves the same question. The services these types of companies provide are very similar, but the difference between the two tends to revolve around the breadth of services they provide and the costs involved.
Chapter 2. Freight forwarding: Managing risk
2.1 Overview of freight forwarders’ responsibilities
Freight forwarders provide transport solutions to businesses wanting to send packages, crates and containers fr om one country to another.
Forwarders act on behalf of importers and exporters to get their client’s goods to their destination on time and in good condition. This means booking cargo with shipping lines, airlines, rail or road carriers. Some freight forwarders have their own road transport and may carry the goods themselves.
A forwarder’s other responsibilities include preparing and checking bills of carriage, arranging insurance, ensuring the lowest possible customs charges are levied and, wh ere necessary, arranging storage.
This guide shows how trading conditions and insurance are used to limit the financial risk for forwarders. It also explains international trade finance and international commercial terms.
2.2 Trading conditions and limiting liability for freight forwarders
All businesses are subject to a wide range of statutory regulations, for example employment law, health and safety, public liability and accounting standards. There are also legal issues which specifically affect freight forwarders and their customers.
The role of the freight forwarder is to make arrangements which enable goods to travel from seller to buyer. This often involves a journey of several thousand miles, using more than one mode of transport.
There must have been a sale and contract agreed between a seller and buyer for the supply of goods before a freight forwarder is needed. Many of the elements of this contract impact directly on the nature and detail of the contract eventually
Chapter 3. General conditions for freight forwarding
I. GENERAL PROVISIONS
Article 1: Scope of Application
a) The present General Conditions shall apply to transactions between traders for all operations of the Freight Forwarder pertaining to the conduct of the carriage.
b) The General Conditions prevail over any different local commercial customs and business usage, as well as different legislative provisions and provisions of international conventions, unless the latter are ius cogens.
Article 2: Freight Forwarding Contract
a) Assignment of Freight Forwarding Services is the contract by virtue of which the Freight Forwarder undertakes, against payment, the obligation against the sender or the consignee of the goods to carry them to the place of delivery, not conducting the carriage himself, but finding the carrier who shall carry the goods and with whom the Freight Forwarder concludes a contract of carriage in his name but on the sender's or the consignee's account.
b) The Freight forwarder may act as a carrier in the performance of the carriage.
Article 3: The conduct of relevant operations by the Freight Forwarder
a) The Freight Forwarder undertakes, following a special agreement, except for the conduct of the carriage, all the incidental operations such as transhipment of goods, storage, clearance, insurance and any other relevant operations what so ever.
b) The General Conditions shall apply to the businesses of the Freight Forwarder relating to the conduct of carriage only, unless there has been a different written agreement with the Customer.
1. Multimodal Transport Institute (MTI), FIATA Position Paper – on the Mandatory verifications of Container Weights
2. Custom Affairs Institute (CAI), FIATA Position Paper - WCO Unique Consigment References UCR 27, June 2012
3. Custom Affairs Institute (CAI), FIATA Position Paper – transit Freedom in WTO Doha Trade Facilitation negotiations – submitted to the World Trade Organization – WTO – July 2012
4. Combining the OWG’s Focus Areas in a Holistic Manner with Trade Facilitation
5. IATA-FIATA, Joint Position on the need for States to ratify the Montreal Convention 1999 MC99 to promote trade facilitation
6. UN Commission on Sustainable Development Open Letter - Logistics connectivity on the main goals for sustainable development
7. FIATA, Glossarium-Transport and Forwarding Terms
8. FIATA, Code of Abbreviation
9. Peter Jones, FIATA Legal Handbook on Forwarding
10. Emeritus Jan Ramberg, The Law of Freight Forwarding
11. Emeritus Jan Ramberg, The Law of Transport Operators in International Trade
12. Issa Baluch, Transport Logistics – Past Present and Predictions