The Role of Freight Forwarding in Supply Chain
Autor: SYED ALI AHMAD • March 9, 2016 • Course Note • 358 Words (2 Pages) • 987 Views
The Role of Freight Forwarding in Supply Chain
Freight forwarder is the person who handle the movement of goods from one place to another on the behalf of its owner. Freight forwarder is also known as non-vessel operating common carrier (NVOCC). A freight forwarder is an organization or an individual who organizes to get goods from producer to market, consumer or distribution channel. Forwarders contract with a carrier or multiple carriers to move the goods locally or internationally. Actually the forwarder cannot move the goods but he pretends that he is expert in the logistics network. They can carry variety of modes e.g. railways, shipping, airplanes and trucks, but most of time they uses multiple modes for a single shipment. For example they move a goods from Karachi plant to Islamabad Mall so they cargo the goods to airport by truck and then cargo flown to Islamabad and after that they moved goods to Islamabad Mall by truck.
Most of time freight forwarders deals with international clients or shipments. International freight forwarders have expertise in preparing and processing the customs and other legal documents regarding that commodity. Pakistan International Freight Forwarder Association PIFFA has more than 500 freight forwarding companies as members. The association is registered under Ministry of Commerce and Govt. of Pakistan and they had aim to support and improve standards of Pakistan’s freight industry for the professional competence. PIFFA also offering short courses to educate the freight forwarders by internationally recognized diploma from FIATA. PIFFA is also local representative of FIATA and member association for Pakistan.
Freight forwarders provides assistance to exporters in preparing the price quotations by advising on
- Freight costs
- Port charges
- Consular fees
- Cost of special documents
- Insurance cost
- Handling fee
Freight forwarders recommend the necessary packing to methods to protect merchandise during transit. If exporter want to reserve space in ship, train or truck, they provide them and all cost is charged to the customers. Once the order is ready for the shipment the freight forwarder review all the documents and ensure that all documents are in right order.
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