Freight forwarding stands for the planning, management and working of the shipping of goods from one place to another. This planning has been carried out by a Freight Forwarder. The work of a freight forwarder is the negotiations, management of goods, custom management etc. In easier words, it’s a type of export and import where you have to send different goods by shipping, which can be any method whether it is by air, rail, or sea, you can use any of these methods according to your company or your work. So all the management of this process has been given the name of freight forwarding and a person who does all this has been called a Freight Forwarder.
It’s not an easy profession but not so difficult as well. Some of the things of which you need to be well aware of in the business of freight forwarding are;
- You should have a thorough knowledge and understanding of the customs and rules of different countries and states. Because every country has their own cultural and safety policies. Especially the countries with which you are working in collaboration, you need to be thoroughly aware of their policies so that you can work comfortably with them.
- Not only knowledge but you also need to be expertise in problem solving because sometimes there are a lot of unpredictable things like rain, or any other weather condition, or human failure, so you need to manage everything and take responsibility for everything. .And manage your stress level as well because things you don’t have thought of can happen anytime
- You should have to establish connections with many of the well renowned people not only in your own country but also the other countries to get help from them in the time of need.
- You also need to have a license for carrying out this business.
In freight forwarding you get a link with a lot of companies if you are choosing this business. These companies have huge connections with the trading worlds. Their work is to manage the import and export of different products;like taking them from a place and transferring them to the customer who is going to buy it with a full responsibility of time and the nature of the product. Though it is not an easy process. They have to maintain connections, take advisors, and a number of agents who are well versed in dealing with every unpredictable situation in the given time limit.
Well there is no doubt in it that Freight Forwarding is one of the stressful jobs with so much pressure on the workers about the work and always being alert for any disastrous situation but with this it is also one of the most enjoyable profession as well where you get a lot of other benefits like communicating with people of different countries, knowing about their culture and language etc. Salary of a Freight Forwarder is also very good.
The fact that this business is flourishing day by day has a lot of causes like the low cost shipping of goods, easiness in the traveling process so that the things get delivered in time while fulfilling the needs of the customers. And you can have different things being shipped from different countries.
Key Segments of Freight Forwarding:
These are some of the key services provided by Freight Forwarding:
- Packaging.
- Documentation.
- Transportation.
- Warehousing.
- VAS_Value-added-service.
Geography of Freight Forwarding:
It has been introduced in North America by the countries:
- S
- Mexico
- Canada
It has been introduced in Asia-Pacific by the countries;
- China
- India
- Japan
- Australia
It has been introduced in Europe by the countries:
- UK
- France
- Germany
- Russia