When you need a freight forwarder to handle your overseas shipments, you face a dizzying number and variety of choices, from huge global enterprises to smaller specialty firms. How to choose a freight forwarder that matches your needs? The answer isn’t simple.
Here’s a look at what to expect as you evaluate possible partners, large and small.
Maybe you’ve bought a used excavator from a dealer in another country. Or you’ve made the winning bid on equipment from a recently-closed factory thousands of miles away. There are many reasons for shipping machinery overseas, many decisions to make along the way and many opportunities to ensure trouble-free, cost effective transit – if you have the necessary capabilities.
When you import unassembled furniture, some of the choices you make about transportation can save you a good deal of money. Here’s some advice on how to find cost-saving opportunities when shipping furniture in containers.
Out of gauge cargo – cargo that doesn’t fit in a standard shipping container – poses extra risks on the road. That’s why state DOTs regulate OOG cargo and require truckers who transport it to get special permits.
Complying with state regulations for oversize cargo helps ensure that your load will arrive on time, undamaged and without any legal problems.
When you ship an ocean container over the road, a standard trucking company might be all you need. But certain shipments really call for a heavy haul trucking company – a carrier that can operate legally at more than the federally-defined maximum gross weight.
And sometimes – even if a heavy shipment wasn’t your original plan – you can save a lot of money by working with a heavy haul expert.
There are no special heavy shipping rates on container vessels. Ask a steamship line for a quote, and it doesn’t matter if you’re filling a container with 5,000 lbs. or 55,000 lbs. The per-container ocean rate is the same.
But some heavy loads can’t be shipped in containers. And the total cost of transportation includes rates for other services besides the ocean crossing.
Say you need to move the machines from three shuttered US factories into a facility overseas. Or you’re providing several huge components needed to build an offshore oil rig. When you transport those items, that shipment is called heavy lift project cargo.
Project cargo might require multiple containers, it’s often heavier and bigger than the average ocean shipment, and it poses some special challenges:
One of the best ways to save money on international shipping is to load containers with as much weight as the law allows. After you load them, of course, you need to get that heavy shipment to the port, and then from the destination port to the receiver.
Those over-the-road trips can be tricky. It takes a special kind of service provider – ideally a heavy haul freight broker – to move a heavy shipment safely, legally and economically.
A major rail line in the New York Metro area was able to source the steel rail it needed in the UK. The company arranged ocean transport to the Port of NY/NJ, but transporting the steel rail from New Jersey to Connecticut was going to be a challenge since some of the rail sections were 132 feet long.
Many global shippers of dense, heavy freight fail to maximize container payloads and, as a result, inflate heavy freight shipping costs 20% or more. But by working with the right landside partners, heavy freight shippers can maximize container weight on the water to reduce the total number of container shipments annually – and still deliver door-to-door, without transloading.
