If businesses want to maintain the flow of profit at a desirable rate, shipping goods and products are often crucial. But this process is usually quite complicated and involves a lot of moving parts.
Consequently, many business owners reach out to a freight forwarding company. UK freight forwarders are a part of the British International Freight Association (BIFA) and have the task of seeing the shipments arrive at their final destination.
To get the complete picture of how this works, we’ll tell you about the freight forwarding process in detail. We’ll also elaborate on the most critical stages and point out a few important distinctions.
What Is Freight Forwarding Exactly?
If you’ve never heard the term before, you might think that a freight forwarding company is the same as a shipping company. Or maybe you imagine that they function as a distribution manager.
Neither of these would be accurate, even though freight forwarding contains elements of both. A freight forwarding company specialises in storing and shipping goods on behalf of the shippers.
Sounds relatively simple. However, the services they cover include tracking inland transportation, paperwork, managing the regulations involved, warehousing, booking cargo space, negotiating freight charges, and countless other things.
The Six Stages of Freight Forwarding Process
Now that you have a better sense of what a freight forwarding company does, we can elaborate on the entire process. It would be impossible to list all of the tasks a forwarding company handles, but they can be divided into six separate stages.
Export Haulage
First, a shipper hires a freight forwarding company. UK-based forwarders then take over the goods from them and transport them to the warehouses they’ve booked.
Everything they do during this stage is called export haulage. Often, forwarders have to use several different modes of forwarding to get the job done, including road and rail.
Export Customs Clearance
In the case of international shipping, customs clearance is mandatory. In this stage of freight forwarding, the in-house licenced custom brokers take over.
They have the job of submitting all the details regarding the cargo as well as any additional documentation. Typically, one person in the freight forwarding company specialises in this particular stage of the process.
Origin Handling
The list of tasks covered in this stage of the forwarding process can often be quite extensive. However, the most crucial part is that the forwarding company receives the cargo. It’s then validated against the existing booking details. Finally, the forwarding company issues a cargo receipt.
Import Customs Clearance
When the cargo is about to enter the destination country, import customs clearance is required. Forwarding companies need to secure all the necessary paperwork to declare the goods and products being shipped.
This process starts even before the shipment arrives at the destination and shouldn’t be confused with custom duty. Freight forwarding companies hold full responsibility for managing custom clearance and having all the valid documentation.
Destination Handling
Once the import customs clearance is over, the freight forwarding company gathers up all the documentation about the shipment.
It’s incredibly important to make sure everything is in order and that nothing is missing. Otherwise, it can cause many problems to every party involved.
Import Haulage
This is the final stage of the freight forwarding process. The cargo is moved to the warehouse at the final destination. Usually, it’s the freight forwarding company that takes over this task of import haulage. However, sometimes other arrangements are possible.
Benefits of Freight Forwarding
Clearly, freight forwarding requires a lot of complex manoeuvring. If you’re a business owner in need of moving goods and products, you might be wondering if hiring a freight forwarder is a good idea. Here are a few reasons why it definitely is:
- Simplicity
- Freedom from contracts
- Cost-effectiveness
- Expedience
- Tracking system
- Security
Choosing the Right Forwarding Company
Once you decide that your business will benefit from freight forwarding, you have to choose the best option. A strong network of business partners is at the core of every forwarding company. UK-based businesses will get only the best forwarding services with GenX Freight.
It’s a forwarding company with a modern touch and cutting-edge solutions for logistics and shipping. Services include road freight, sea freight, air freight and project cargo services. Make sure to choose only the best in the business.
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