What Is A Freight Broker?
Posted on: 22 February 2017
When you ship a lot of cargo, you need to make sure it gets shipped correctly. To do that, you will probably have to do business with freight forwarders and freight brokers. While the jobs may look like they overlap somewhat, they do different things and help you in different ways.
Freight Forwarder
A freight forwarder is a person who receives shipments and then sends them on to where they need to be. For example, if you are shipping out of the country, you can send the cargo to a freight forwarder. The forwarder can help to make sure that the shipment gets placed where it needs to be in order for your client to get their shipment. A forwarder can also take a lot of little shipments and combine them into one larger shipment. For example, that same client who is out of the country can arrange for all their shipments to go to a freight forwarder. That freight forwarder will receive all those shipments and then bundle them up into one larger shipment. That saves the recipient money and time since they aren't paying for all kinds of shipping costs and they aren't waiting for a lot of shipments to straggle in.
Freight Broker
A freight broker's job is different. They do the whole arranging of the shipment from start to finish. For example, if you have a large shipment to go out, you can call your freight agent at the broker's office. You tell your agent where the shipment is, what it is, where it needs to go, and when it needs to be there. The broker's office will then start working out how to get it there. They will contact various shipping companies to see who has the best deal for shipping costs, who can get the shipment where it needs to be within the deadline, and what agents will work for what is necessary. If there are multiple transport companies involved or multiple methods of shipping necessary, the broker's office will make sure that each step of the way is set up. They will handle everything from your door to the recipient's door.
If you need to do a lot of shipping, you want to make sure that everything gets where it needs to be safely. Freight brokers and freight forwarders, while they have different jobs, can both make the shipping process easier on everyone involved.
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