No more scary prices, vanishing inventory, goods left at port, overweight planes and disappointed customers.
Now is a good time to review your supply chain, your Christmas shipping should be booked and in hand, inventory, stock control and distribution all happily organised for the following months. So, it’s time to review your processes, costs and freight forwarding partnerships in preparation for next year’s sales activity and business planning.
Here are a few tips for successful freight forwarding partnerships
- Priorities and communication
Appointing a freight forwarder makes your shipping process easier, so it’s important to communicate your priorities – the shipping solution will then be tailored to your business. This can be decisions based on volume, frequency, lead times, price, environmental issues, suitable storage or goods handling processes. A good freight forwarder can advise on every aspect of your shipping based on your priorities and objectives.
- Confirm what’s included in the price
It is essential that you know exactly who is responsible for what when outsourcing shipping to a freight forwarder. This includes all the paperwork – whether insurance is included in the cost, is your forwarder completing all the import and export documentation, and who is responsible for payment of the taxes, charges and duties.
It is important that if you have been tempted by a low freight forwarding quote, clarify exactly what you are getting for your money. At TPS Global Logistics we are trade experts, our freight forwarding team oversees the planning, custom and consular formalities on your behalf.
- Check for accreditations
The UK freight forwarding industry is unregulated, meaning anyone can set up as a freight forwarder, with no experience or qualifications in the industry. We recommend that you check the quality and reputation of a freight forwarder, looking at memberships and accreditations can be a good indicator.
At TPS Global Logistics our reputation is important to us, we are members of BIFA (and adhere to their standard trading conditions) we also hold WCA, IATA, FIATA, Connector and GCA memberships, we have FORS accreditation and are twice winners of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade.
- Utilise online tools
One of the benefits of using a good freight forwarder is access to online tools to make the service as quick and easy as possible. Once set up, online reporting gives you live transparency on the progress of your goods, enabling you to communicate with your own customers.
Our online management tools allow you to manage inventory, track and trace deliveries, access shipping reports, delivery documents and book collection and delivery times for your goods, and the software is compatible with all e-commerce platforms for seamless supply chain operations.
- Think about the add-on services
All freight forwarders are different, and some offer more services than others, so check with your freight forwarder to see if they can add additional value to your business supply chain logistics.
At TPS Global we offer an end to end shipping service for the door to door delivery of your goods worldwide. We have our own warehouse and distribution facility in Aylesford, Kent and our services include Air, Sea, Road and Rail freight, UK and European transport, IT, broadcast and event logistics, courier services, time critical deliveries including in house ATA carnet printing (this temporary admission document acts a ‘passport for goods’ and eliminates the need for customs declaration, which speeds up the process for commercial samples, goods for exhibitions and trade fairs and professional equipment) we also have an office in the USA and a DBS checked labour team.
Hopefully you’ll avoid any frights this month but if you do get a shock and need assistance with freight, distribution and storage please call our team. We are always happy to help, quotes are turned around quickly and we can usually accommodate last minute urgent jobs using our extensive network of airlines, shipping lines and hauliers as well as our in-house team of drivers and couriers.