If you’re moving overseas, you already have a ton on your mind—packing up your household, arranging transportation, maybe nailing down details about a job, or where you’ll live—and on and on. You also have to figure out how to move all your stuff. Shipping personal items overseas in a shipping container is much more complicated than sending them, say, from Boston to Arizona in a moving van.
Every 5 years, the World Customs Organization updates the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) that classifies the products you buy and sell and, in part, determines the duty you pay. WCO just finished is latest update, which went into effect in the US on January 27. It’s wise to revisit the HS codes for Customs you have been using in light of these recent changes.
Hazmat cargo.
The phrase can conjure images of skull & crossbones stickers on steel drums with contents that can melt through just about anything. But when it comes to shipping, even some common items in your house are considered hazmat – like paint, perfume, deodorant, glue, and glass cleaners.
Freight marketplaces for ocean freight are gaining in popularity. But does this online booking option really align with your needs as a shipper? Here’s an overview of things to consider when examining the freight forwarder vs freight marketplace choice.
Sometimes the volume of your ocean shipment easily makes up a full containerload (FCL). Sometimes the shipment is small enough to make less-than-containerload (LCL) service the best option. But the choice between FCL vs LCL shipping isn’t always clear cut. What to do then?
Here are some factors to keep in mind as you decide which service to use.
Nine of the top 20 countries that sell goods into Canada are in Europe, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade. If you want to learn how to make this trade route more profitable through efficient global transportation, here’s a quick guide.
If you’re new to international shipping, you might be confused by the various terms used for service providers that handle cargo. For example: NVOCC vs. freight forwarder. What’s the difference between these two kinds of companies? What does each one do, and how do you know which one to approach when you have a shipment to arrange?
Buyers in the US look to Lithuania to source everything from chemicals to furniture to machinery. Of course, finding the product you want at the right price gets you only partway toward a successful deal. To make this sourcing strategy worthwhile, carefully managing the time and costs involved, you need to understand all the nuances of shipping from Lithuania to the USA.
Outsourcing to a freight forwarder for small business international shipments can save you a lot of trouble and money. A good forwarder has the expertise, and the access to capacity, to keep your shipments cost-effective and trouble-free. That’s especially important when your own company has a lean staff and doesn’t have much experience with global trade.
An alarming number of shippers these days are desperately searching for someone to rescue their containers. The problem? Companies contract with steamship lines for door-to-door cargo shipping, and then the lines provide terrible service. Sometimes containers even get stranded at ports or rail terminals for weeks.
How can you avoid those problems? Let’s take a look.
