There is no unified definition of freight forwarders meaning internationally. The International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA) defines a freight forwarder as a person who arranges the transportation of goods. They do this based on customer instructions and for the customer’s benefit. Freight forwarders are not carriers themselves. They may also handle related activities like storage, customs declaration, inspection, and payment collection. This is the basic definition of a freight forwarder.
The nature of international freight forwarding agents
The nature of international freight forwarding can be understood from two aspects: the perspective of the international freight forwarding industry and the perspective of international freight forwarding agents
(1) The nature of international freight forwarding industry: The international freight forwarding industry belongs to the tertiary industry in the social industrial structure and is essentially a service industry. From a political economy perspective, it belongs to the transportation industry and the transportation support industry.
(2) The nature of international freight forwarders: International freight forwarders are essentially agents of transportation related parties, serving as transportation intermediaries that connect shippers, consignees, and carriers.
The business scope of international freight forwarding agents
The business scope of freight forwarding reflects its core meaning. International freight forwarding covers a wide range of services. These include import/export cargo solicitation, booking, and consignment. It also involves warehousing, packaging, and loading/unloading supervision. Other services include transit, distribution, and inspection handling. Freight forwarding also includes cargo insurance. Emerging services include international multimodal transport and exhibition transportation. Personal goods transportation and international express delivery are part of the scope as well. Third-party logistics is another growing segment in international freight forwarding.
Transportation modes of international freight forwarders
The transportation methods of international freight forwarders generally include the following four types:
(1) Water freight forwarding: refers to international freight forwarding services that provide water freight transportation services and related services. It can be specifically divided into two types: sea freight agents and river freight agents
(2) Air freight agent: refers to an international freight forwarder that provides air cargo transportation and related services.
(3) Land transportation agency: refers to a freight forwarder that provides transportation services such as road, railway, pipeline transportation, and related services for goods.
(4) Intermodal transportation agency: refers to an international freight forwarder that provides transportation services such as road, railway, pipeline transportation, and related services for goods. This type of agency can be further divided into sea air intermodal agency, sea rail intermodal agency, air rail intermodal agency, and other types.
Characteristics of International Freight Forwarders
The freight forwarding industry has a history of hundreds of years since its development from customs brokers, undertaking the organization of international freight. This makes the meaning of freight forwarding increasingly familiar to people.With the trend of global economic integration, multinational corporations are conducting increasingly frequent material exchange activities on a global scale. The international freight forwarding industry mainly has the following characteristics:
(1) Corporate mergers and acquisitions lead to expansion of scale.
(2) Transitioning from a freight forwarding company to a third-party logistics company.
(3) The widespread application of advanced information technology.
In the final alalysis,the freight forwarder meaning is not only reflected in the literal meaning, but also in the professional services provided by freight forwarders, which reduce transportation costs and solve transportation problems for customers.
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