Getting to Know Your Cargo

8. November 2007 by admin.

Feasible. By definition this term is being able to produce a result with the “means at hand and the circumstances as they are” (Princeton, online). Often, we receive quotation requests by customers who haven’t presented the complete picture of the product supply chain to us. A perfect example is a recent request we had received to Durres, a port city in Albania. The original request came in to ship the cargo to CY Durres, which was then revised to FOT Tirana based on our input regarding our transport experience with Albania. Both destinations are certainly reasonable requests by any exporter. One of my colleagues had repeatedly asked this client for the address at destination, just to make certain the ultimate destination of the cargo was indeed Tirana. The address, however, was not provided and in the interest of customer service a freight quote was generated to the “door” in Tirana.

Based on this information, the cargo was subsequently booked with us to door Tirana.  Upon sailing, we learned the ultimate destination (consignee’s address) was Delvine, an Albanian mountain city, requiring a different Greek border crossing than used for Tirana. Not only were we perplexed at this oversight by the forwarder, the consignee was just as confused at how Tirana entered into the picture. Ultimately, it was determined the forwarder looked for the largest city in the country and had assumed that must be the ultimate destination of the freight.

I bring up this example to illustrate the value of getting to know your freight and how to determine the feasibility of the transport. This forwarder ended up paying extra inland haulage costs due to their mistake. We have seen other exporters and forwarders pay extraordinary customs fines and transporting cargo across a continent to make up for the failure to collect the necessary transport details when bidding on the cargo. If these instances were isolated it would be easy to look past these cases as being outside the norm. Unfortunately we see these instances so frequently that this has become the norm and a recipe for disaster. Whether the destination is Kathmandu, Kinshasha, or Delvine; allow those who know to determine if the transport to the ultimate destination is feasible.

Before finalizing your next freight cost calculation, take some time to determine all of the details, including ultimate destination of the cargo. I’m certain this will yield dividends in return and preclude confusion and additional cost.

Kary Brown - Dir Business Systems

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