A brief about Freight Forwarding services
Transport, logistics operator, freight transportation service, supply chain... Sometimes it is not easy to know where one begins and the other ends, what tasks they share and which ones are specific to one or the other. In this article, we will not only try to clarify the differences but also highlight some aspects that are essential for this service.
What is a freight forwarding service?
Freight forwarding is sometimes defined as the muscle of the supply chain. This is because it is the one that physically carries out the movement of the merchandise from one point to another. However, this simile seems to imply that there is no brain behind this movement of trucks. But this would be wrong. Managing a fleet and conducting routes has a lot of science behind the scenes.
Both supply chain and logistics are more global concepts. But both need the less glamorous cargo transportation service to function.
Things to keep in mind in the cargo transport service
Vehicle types
Freight transport supports a wide variety of vehicles. Land, sea, air, truck, ship, plane, etc. The type of transport chosen is determined by the type of supply chain. For example, a large industry, which has extensive planning, can take advantage of the low costs of shipping, despite having to assume long delivery times from the other side of the world.
Even within the same type of transport, the differences are great. The services to which a delivery van or a trailer are usually dedicated, whether national or international, have little to do with each other. A company may need to use all of them at one time or another, but it must design its logistics taking into account the different possibilities that they offer. And thus see when and why you are interested in last-mile delivery, the option of consolidating larger loads to optimize costs, vehicles with a hatch (something less common in trailers), etc.
Types of loads
If the vehicle matters, the type of cargo is no less important. If you've been to a supermarket, you may have noticed that merchandise from department stores (coincidentally) tends to fit perfectly on pallets. Suppliers do this to optimize the space available in the trucks and so that the freight transport service can work with merchandise that is as standardized as possible. This has a direct impact on costs since most logistics operator rates are made with standard-size pallets in the head.
At the other extreme, we find the non-conventional load. We can find special dimensions, non-conventional merchandise, tankers, ADR merchandise… All these loads require different vehicles and comply with different legislations. Although there are logistics operators that can respond to several of them, you have to make sure that this is the case and not treat it as conventional merchandise.
If you are looking for digital freight forwarding services, contact Agora Freight freely.

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