| Freight shipping involves the movement of large | | | | importer you always want to maintain a good |
| packaging such as pallets or even containers and is | | | | relationship with your trading company. If they are |
| usually used by importer/exporters. The table below | | | | used to working with freight forwarders it may be to |
| lists all of the different freight services available from | | | | your advantage to continue to use a freight |
| DHL, Fedex and UPS. They are grouped into three | | | | forwarder. However you can instruct your freight |
| sections: Air, Ocean and Ground/Rail. These services | | | | forwarder to use one of these shipping carriers and |
| mainly address the unique needs of these business | | | | your shipping account to make the arrangements. |
| shippers such as expediency, security, temperature | | | | Having previously arranged shipments through your |
| sensitivity, door to door delivery, consolidation etc. | | | | freight forwarders using their means it would be an |
| Two words about freight forwarders | | | | easy matter to do a cost comparison of the shipping |
| Many international importer and exporters choose to | | | | using one of these carriers. If you decide that there |
| elect a freight forwarder to handle all the details for | | | | are sufficient benefits to using one of these carriers, |
| shipping their commodities internationally. One thing | | | | you can then try to negotiate greater volume |
| that they should be aware of is that freight | | | | discounts from your shipping carrier by including your |
| forwarders outsource their services and many times | | | | import/export shipments in addition to your present |
| use DHL, Fedex or UPS freight services as well for a | | | | shipping volume. Finally and equally important you this |
| portion of the shipping-especially if shipping air freight. | | | | would give you better control on the actual final cost |
| In the case of air freight you may want to consider | | | | of the shipment plus option of door to door delivery |
| using these carriers directly. The nice thing about | | | | if desired. |
| using these main carriers directly for your freight | | | | A changing market outlook... |
| needs is that a price can be given up front that | | | | Importer/Exporters usually are content to allow for a |
| should not deviate much from the final price. Often | | | | certain percentage of their profit margin to go to |
| freight forwarders cannot tell give a customer a final | | | | shipping and are happy to just pay what is needed. |
| price because honestly they don't know what it will | | | | However the United States economy is slowing |
| be. | | | | which means that orders will not be as large and |
| Another notable difference between using a freight | | | | profit margins will suffer. It is usually times such as |
| forwarder and using one of these carriers is that the | | | | these when "necessary" costs are more closely |
| delivery can be made door to door. Freight | | | | scrutinized. |
| forwarders often only deliver to airports. As an | | | | |