What you should know about a Freight Forwarder.
Since I was young, I have always enjoyed buying and selling things, being the middleman, connecting people to other people and products, and 15 years later I don’t feel like anything has changed. So, what is a Freight Forwarder?
A Freight Forwarder is an individual or company that arranges for goods to be transported from one place to another using a range of carriers and shipping methods. A Freight Forwarder operates in all or some of the varying transportation divisions, such as road freight, airfreight, sea freight, and even rail freight.
A Freight Forwarder can also specialise in specific destination countries (i.e. Morocco), or the handling of specific products or niche markets (i.e. automotive industry).
Depending on their expertise and speciality, Freight Forwarders can also provide a wide range of services such as Export and Import declarations, customs clearance, insurance, storage and tracking.
What does a Freight Forwarder do?
This is the killer question when I meet someone outside of the industry and explain to them what I do!
Person: “So what do you do for a living?”
Me: I am a freight Forwarder”
Person: “what did you say!?
Freight Forwarders keep the world moving.We take control and responsibility of your shipment and will be the intermediary between the shipper and the carriers, liaising with them all to negotiate on price and service. A Freight Forwarder will thus help you to find the fastest, most economic and safest transport route available, based on your unique individual or business requirements.
As Freight Forwarders, we are ultimately here to guide clients through the labyrinth of logistics and shipping. It might sound simple to move products from A to B but the transportation market is so fragmented that it is impossible for a transport company to fulfil its customer requirements without using agents, partners, and other networks. A transport company will specialise in full truck load movement from the UK to France. That said, this company will not have a financially competitive option to send 10 pallets to Germany or carry out a delivery of a full truck load domestically. Similarly, a shipping line that ships a container from China to the UK might not be the best fit for rapidly moving the goods from their original address to the port, or for clearing the products at customs and then arrange for transport from the port to the delivery point.
Freight Forwarders use established relationships with carriers and networks in all transport modes and can offer quick and efficient response to your needs.
Freight Forwarders aren’t traffic planners, they don’t manage a fleet of trucks and drivers. Freight Forwarders are relentless about finding solutions for their customers to move products at the most competitive prices to ensure value for money throughout. The strengths of a Freight Forwarder are our network and experience – we are only as good as our partner carriers, but our experience means that we have encountered a multitude of problems along the way, so we have the knowledge to swiftly deal with any issues that may arise during transport.
What are the advantages of using a freight forwarder:
- Single point of contact: In most cases, you will only deal with one person to arrange your shipments, as opposed to multiple contacts from different companies or different services within a single company.
- Relationships resolve issues: Having someone by your side that knows your business inside and out will help when faced with challenges.
- Clarity on billing: You will agree on a cost for the end-to-end process with no surprises.
- Responsiveness: The Freight Forwarder role is centred around its customers so you can expect fast response time, pro-activity and a good relationship.
- Last-minute bookings: When a haulier cannot send you a truck because they are fully booked, the Freight Forwarder has access to multiple carriers through their network and can find you the right vehicle for that important order.
- A human–size business: Freight Forwarding teams generally consist of small groups rather than vast and impersonal departments, meaning you can expect speed when it comes to insurance claim handling, PODs, ETAs, invoices and documentation.
Which customers will benefit most by using a Freight Forwarder?
- If you are new to importing and exporting or international movement of products.
- If you have a diverse range of shipping requirements and you do not have the time or resources to outsource each carrier yourself.
- If you work in a transactional market when the speed of quotation is important to win business.
- If you have been let down by your existing carrier and want to improve your service.
- If you just want to benchmark your existing solution and get some expert advice.
- If you want to have a backup solution to your primary carrier.
- If you believe that your time is better spent elsewhere. You value that hassle-free approach of Freight Forwarding that enables you to concentrate on what you do best and value the most.
What should you look for when appointing a Freight Forwarder?
- Understand their speciality/market: This will allow you to capitalise on their strengths and avoid wasting your time.
- Go beyond the sales pitch/PowerPoint presentation and pricing: As much as the salesperson is likable and the product sounds good, transport is a service business. It is the person appointed to look after your account who will make your experience a success or a nightmare. I always like to speak to the operation team or customer service. By asking simple questions, you can very quickly understand if people take pride in their job; how the company values and culture translate to employees; and how engaged they will be in managing your business.
- Service clarity: Go through their Terms and Conditions and ask about any points that don’t sound clear to you.
- Give it a try: You will only fully understand how good
a company is for your business when something goes wrong. 90-95% of all deliveries will go well, and it is in dealing
with the 5-10% that go wrong where companies and individuals will differentiate
themselves from one another. Below are just
a small amount of signals that will help in understanding how good the company
is:
- Are they emailing you about problems rather than calling you?
- Are they proactively resolving issues, or reacting only when chased?
- Are they empathetic to your issue?
- Is the individual empowered by management to resolve the issue?
- Ensure your goods are adequately protected: Have they got the right insurance covers in place? You should expect your Freight Forwarder to have a freight insurance certificate. It means that when a claim arises, you will deal with them as opposed to having to make your claim directly to the carrier that did the transport.
- Check for signs of professional quality: Are they a member of a trading association? BIFA, RHA, CILT are just a few, and give reassurance that the company has a good standard and operational practices.
- Understand their structure and operational processes: Take the time to go through a proof of
concept from getting a quote, to making a booking, to getting delivery
confirmation or being informed of an exception, and finally receiving your proof of
delivery and invoice.
- What does it look like?
- Does it fit with your existing model?
- Would it improve it?
- Does the Freight Forwarder expect everything done online when you wanted to build a relationship and be talking to a person?
These are all relevant questions that I too often don’t see being asked.
- Understand their revenue and your fit within it: With the best will in the world, a client spending £15,000 a year with a company making £100 million will not get the level of service a larger account would get. Not that you shouldn’t work with them, but you need to be ok with this.
Finally, not all Freight Forwarders are made as equals, and as such finding the right Freight Forwarder for you can be a bit of a treasure hunt.However, it is well worth the search as having the right logistics partner can be so rewarding, by helping to streamline your transport requirements and confidently meet the needs of your own customers.
Yours faithfully,
Jean-Philippe Guérin.
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