How can freight forwarders help?
A freight forwarder can help you improve the delivery times of your exports and increase customer service. Their experience can also help you find the most cost-effective way to move your exports around the world.
Using a company with a local agent at your export destination will give you access to ‘on-the-ground’ information about legal requirements and ‘market quirks’. Freight forwarders often specialise in the export of particular products, or in exports to particular countries. Take the time to find a freight forwarder with expert knowledge of your product or destination country.
Freight forwarders can help with all your freight logistics needs or aspects of it, including:
- organising and negotiating transport from your premises to the port/airport
- packing your product onto pallets or into containers
- preparing the necessary export documentation, customs permits and licences
- they will be able to advise the best terms of trade for you and your client and specify where ownership and risk transfer
- arranging storage and warehousing or delivery in the destination country based upon the agreed terms.
Information your freight forwarder needs
- What you are shipping: Tell your freight forwarder exactly what you are exporting so they know what they’re dealing with and how to handle it. For example, exporting hazardous goods requires specialised packing as well as permits and approvals before they can be exported. Other goods may need to be stowed in specific areas of the vessel or aircraft, away from incompatible products. Be specific and provide as much detail as possible to help speed things up and avoid problems later.
- How your product is packed: Tell your freight forwarder the weight and dimensions of each box, carton or palette. The weight of consignments less than a container load is calculated per cubic metre. They will also need to know how many units are in each box, and how many boxes are in a carton and how many cartons are on a palette.
- Special requirements of your cargo: Tell your freight forwarder if your product has any special requirements. For example, it might need refrigeration or insulation. You might need air freight only due to short shelf life, or direct shipment, or require no transshipment via hot countries.
- Export contract conditions: Advise the freight forwarder of all export contract conditions so they can help you comply with the terms of your export sales contract or buyer’s purchase contract. If you are shipping under a Letter of Credit (LC), share this with them. They will need to know who the shipper is, who the cargo is consigned to, any stipulations regarding shipment, latest shipment dates, documentation presentation dates, LC expiry dates and other terms stipulated in the LC.
Deadlines
In order to help your freight forwarder serve you best, you need to abide by any deadlines for product delivery, information and documentation they set. They may require certain documents or information from you by a given date. This is so they can make an electronic submission of what is being loaded into a container prior to acceptance at a wharf or airport.
These deadlines may be required to meet New Zealand requirements or the rules and regulations in other countries. For example, the United States and Canada have a stipulation that all documentation must be submitted 24 hours before vessel arrival in load port. This allows the Federal Maritime Council to scrutinise what is coming into or transiting through the United States. If they don’t approve, they will not allow the container to be loaded on the vessel.
Use of the content on this site is subject to the disclaimer policy in our
terms of use. NZTE is not responsible for content we link to on external sites.
