There are various reasons for the transportation of goods between countries, most of which are for increasing the value of the goods. With the rapid development of e-commerce, a large number of small enterprises now require international transportation. The purpose of this is to explain the different steps in cargo transportation. Many participants participate in international transportation, including shipping companies, booking agents, freight forwarders, and customs brokers; Introduce the four main participants of LCL transportation: shipper, consignee, freight forwarder, and shipping company.

Shipping companies are companies that transport goods for you at sea. You may never talk to them, or even see their files or letters.

However, freight forwarders are the logistics suppliers you will be dealing with. They can arrange transportation from the shipper to the consignee - you are one of them. The shipper is the shipper at the place of origin; It can be you or the factory or seller from which you purchased the product. The consignee is the recipient of the goods; This may be you or the person you want to sell the product to. Five physical steps and two document steps in international transportation:

During the transportation of goods from the shipper to the consignee, there are five physical steps and two document steps that must be carried out for each shipment. Each step has related costs that must be resolved by the shipper or consignee. If you want to avoid unexpected costs and unnecessary delays in the supply chain, please ensure that you clearly agree who will pay for each of these 7 steps when booking a shipment. The seven steps of international sea freight include export towing, origin processing, export customs clearance, sea freight, import customs clearance, destination processing, and import towing.

If you have any questions, please refer to the contract between the shipper and the consignee. If it is the sale of goods, the transfer of responsibility for the goods is usually agreed upon in the contract, which will also serve as a source of determining who pays what fees

. 1. The first part of export transportation is export transportation. This involves the movement of goods from the shipper to the freight forwarder's premises. For goods loaded less than containers, the location of the freight forwarder is always the export consolidation center (origin warehouse), where the freight forwarder has its own personnel or designated agents. Goods are usually transported by road (by truck), railway, or combination. If the shipper is agreed to be responsible for this part of transportation, it is usually arranged through the local transportation company. However, if the consignee is responsible, using a freight forwarder who can provide export towing as part of international transportation is usually the most meaningful. Handling goods at the shipper's premises (loaded onto trucks) is not considered as part of export transportation, as unloading trucks at freight forwarding premises is usually not part of export transportation.

2. Export customs clearance requires customs procedures to be completed for each shipment leaving a country to meet regulatory requirements. Customs clearance is a transaction where declaration is made and required documents are submitted to the authorities, which can only be carried out by companies holding valid customs licenses (so-called customs brokers). Export customs clearance can be completed by a freight forwarder with a valid license or by an agent designated by the freight forwarder. Alternatively, it can be executed by a customs broker directly designated by the shipper, who may not necessarily participate in any other part of the transportation process. The export customs clearance step must be completed before the goods leave the country of origin. If it is not completed by the freight forwarder, it usually needs to be completed before the goods enter the freight forwarder's warehouse of origin. November 6-8, Freight Forwarders' Two Sessions - Meeting in Lujiazui, Shanghai

3. Origin processing covers the physical processing and inspection of all goods from receiving goods at the origin warehouse to loading them into containers for shipment. Many different parties have taken many steps under the processing of origin, but all of these are coordinated and responsible by the freight forwarder or the agent designated by the freight forwarder. In short, when goods are received, they are inspected (tallying), planned for loading, merged with other goods, loaded into containers and moved to the port, and then loaded onto the ship. Although it is always the freight forwarder who performs the origin processing, regardless of who actually purchases the freight forwarder, payment can be made by the shipper or consignee. For example, if the consignee decides to use freight forwarder A for importing goods and agrees with the shipper that the shipper must pay the origin fee, the shipper will also automatically purchase the origin fee from freight forwarder A. If the shipper believes that the price of the origin treatment is not at the market level, this situation will create some friction as they are forced to use freight forwarder A.

4. The sea freight forwarder has decided to choose a shipping company to carry out sea transportation from the origin to the destination to meet the required shipping schedule. The freight forwarder has a container transportation contract with the shipping company, in which case the shipper or consignee has no direct interaction with the shipping company. The shipping cost is ultimately borne by the shipper or consignee. However, sea freight has never been the full cost of transportation from port to port. There are various surcharges levied within the industry, such as fuel adjustment coefficients and currency adjustment coefficients, which will be passed on to the shipper or consignee.5、进口清关进口清关通常可以在货物到达目的地国家之前开始。至于出口清关，则是制作申The process of submitting a declaration along with relevant documents to facilitate the registration of goods and the collection of any customs duties by the local authorities. Import customs clearance is handled by the freight forwarder or their agent, or the customs broker designated by the consignee. The import customs clearance process must be completed before the goods leave the bonded area of the destination country. Usually, this means before the goods leave the destination warehouse of the freight forwarder or freight forwarder.

6. As for the origin, the goods also need to be loaded and unloaded at the destination before being released to the consignee. In short, destination processing includes transferring containers from the ship to the shore and from the port to the destination warehouse of the freight forwarder. It also includes unloading containers and preparing goods for the consignee to pick them up. The destination processing of trucks used for transporting LCL goods involves multiple destination fees and is always executed by the freight forwarder or a designated agent of the freight forwarder. A fee can be charged to the shipper or consignee, but full payment is always required before the goods are handed over to the consignee. Similarly, if the agreement is for the shipper to pay the sea freight and the consignee to pay the destination fee, it is actually for the shipper to decide from whom the consignee must purchase the destination for processing. As discussed regarding the cost of origin, this may cause some friction or accidents for unplanned recipients.

7. The final stage of import transportation is the actual delivery of the goods to the consignee. It can be executed by a freight forwarder or a local transportation company designated by the consignee. If this part of transportation is arranged by the shipper, it is usually meaningful to use a freight forwarder who can also arrange import transportation. Import transportation usually includes transportation to a specific address, but does not include unloading from a truck, which is the responsibility of the consignee.