International freight forwarders can be defined as an organization or set of agents who take care of the shipment when sent across the country. It takes copious amounts of stress on the shoulders when dealing with the supply chain management and intricate web of documents. If an individual is to get involved in the entire process, he might not be able to see the feasibility to export the goods overseas with dozens of processes and thorough communication with the people.

In other terms, International air freight forwarders are considered as architects for plotting the whole shipment schedule. They do curate the essential documents, plan the entire shipment process and take care of the financial optimization. They need to build good relationships with the port officials, exporters, cargo organizations for a hassle free and budget friendly process. Key roles that are majorly performed by an international air freight forwarder are as follows –

1. They would help you create all the documents and insurance papers from the scratch without getting lost in the middle.
2. Freight forwarders are generally responsible for – planning the cargo for the shipment, talking to the port officials, creating the documents etc. Moreover, the assistance is provided by these officials to their customers in case of doubts.
3. They do plot the entire route and journey by mapping the shortest distance and time to reach from source to destination.
4. All the essential information flows hassle free from these international freight forwarders to the cargo companies and supply chain management.
5. Other roles include – negotiating with the cargo to crack a good deal, managing the warehouses efficiently, scheduling the entire shipment plans to avoid any delays or confusions.

IS DOMESTIC AIR FREIGHT AS SAME AS THE INTERNATIONAL AIR FREIGHT SYSTEM?

The basic role of transporting the shipments/ consignments/ goods from source to destination remains the same. Although the complexity of tasks and responsibilities sharply decreases when comes to domestic air freight.  When people want their consignment to reach thousands of miles away to a destination, they usually take help from the air freight service providers. Generally, people with relocation, organizations, businessmen and many other types of people opt for these services who want their goods to be shipped and reached on time. Some of the popular responsibilities of a domestic air freight forwarder are as follows –

1. Identify and prepare the documents and differentiate the goods under the tariff code system.
2. Recognize the type of shipment, shortest route available and cost optimization efficiently.
3. In direct contact with the cargo and port official team to ensure a smooth process flow.
4. Taking care of the insurance of goods available in the transit.
5. Updating the shipping information of portal which is visible to the customers.
6. Taking care of the warehouse, maintaining good relationships with the officials and negotiating the shipping price for customers.