Freight forwarder
Forwarding agent
A freight forwarder is a company that arranges the transport of goods for shippers. It books carriers and handles documents, customs and related services.
What it is
A freight forwarder organizes the movement of goods on behalf of exporters and importers. It does not usually own ships or aircraft. Instead it books space with carriers, combines sea, air, road and rail legs into one routing, and arranges related services such as customs clearance, insurance, warehousing and inland transport. A forwarder may act as an agent for the shipper or as a principal issuing its own transport document.
How it works in practice
A typical job starts with an inquiry and a quotation built from buying rates obtained from carriers and partners. Once the customer confirms, the forwarder books the carrier, issues a house bill of lading or house air waybill, and passes the shipment to an overseas agent for delivery. Each job has estimated costs and revenue at the outset and actual invoices and vendor bills by the time it closes.
Why it matters
Forwarders compete on service and on the margin between buying and selling rates, so per-job profitability is the key figure. Because costs arrive after revenue is billed, accruals and work in progress matter in the accounts. A forwarder issuing its own house bill takes on carrier-type liability toward the customer, which is why accurate documents and a dependable overseas agent network are central to the business.
In Sailix
How Sailix handles it
Sailix has a forwarding workspace separate from NVOCC operations. It covers inquiries, buying rates from vendors and partners, quotations with cost estimates, forwarding jobs, house bills of lading, house air waybills, arrival notices, invoices and vendor purchase journals. Cost provisions accrue estimated costs, job closing moves work in progress to the service ledgers, and a job report shows what each job earned and spent.
- Forwarding job managementMaintain Booking holds the forwarding job: service, parties, routing, cargo, containers and estimates, with job status and documents alongside.
- Forwarding quotationsLog inquiries, build quotations from a line-by-line cost estimate, revise issued quotes and see which ones became bookings.
- Job costingRaise job invoices, book vendor costs and notes, accrue cost provisions, and close jobs out of work in progress into the service's ledgers.
Related terms
- NVOCCAn NVOCC is a carrier that sells ocean freight under its own bills of lading without operating ships. It buys space from vessel operators instead.
- House bill of ladingA house bill of lading is the bill a freight forwarder or NVOCC issues to the actual shipper. It covers cargo that moves under a carrier's master bill.
- Air waybillAn air waybill is the non-negotiable transport document for air cargo. It serves as a receipt for the goods and evidence of the contract of carriage.
Get started
Put your whole shipping desk on one system.
Create your workspace and run your first job from booking to settlement.