Guides & Articles on Shipping
Transportation Brokers
Lighten the load of shipping goods by finding the right broker
By Toni Klym McLellan
Your company's shipping needs may have outgrown retail shipping companies, but securing quotes from and monitoring the routes of trucking companies can be daunting. For that reason, many small businesses turn to transportation brokers to help navigate the sometimes tricky ins and outs of arranging for the right transportation. Working with a transportation broker can help your...
Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders
Customs brokers and freight forwarders can help you ship internationally
By Jennifer Baljko
If your business ships internationally, you'll quickly find that there's a long checklist of things to be done before your goods can get to where they're going. To alleviate the stress of coordinating these logistics functions, you may want to work with customs brokers or freight forwarders. They can: Help prepare import and export documentation Facilitate the movement ...
Finding the Trucking Services You Need
Pricing and service levels are complicated so learn before you buy
By Barbara Whitaker
While getting products from Point A to Point B might seem like a fairly straightforward proposition, hiring a trucking service can be a complicated endeavor. From understanding the lingo to sorting through the vast number of alternatives, it's important to examine a few key issues: The type of material you need to transport and whether special handling is necessary The area serve...
Ocean Freight Shipping
Getting your goods on the water with the right freight shipper
By Toni Klym McLellan
Small businesses that need to ship goods by sea face a confusing array of options, vendors and regulations. Ocean shipping also carries an equally baffling array of insider terminology. Many businesses use an agent or a freight shipper to coordinate freight shipping. Finding the right information and ocean freight companies to guide you through these murky waters is essential. ...
Selecting the Right Shipping Method
Shipping can cost your company a bundle if you don't investigate your options
By Judy Artunian
As a business owner, you don't have time to master the intricacies of packaging, shipping rates and schedules. Whether you send packages worldwide on a regular basis or ship locally once a month, you can ease your shipping burden by understanding your unique shipping requirements and establishing a relationship with a reliable carrier. Fundamental steps that will take you in ...
Air Freight and Cargo for Small Business
Move your business into high gear with consistent, quality air freight and air cargo services
By Greg Brown
For any small business, the killer is usually time and distance (either of which -- you guessed it -- equals money). Parts, supplies and materials need air cargo transport to get to your small business, and finished products need to leave and get to customers.Air freight transportation can do lot to solve the supply chain problem, and there are more air freight options than ever fo...
Refrigerated Truck Shipping
How to arrange shipping with a refigerated shipping company or buy a refrigated truck
By Greg Brown
The shrimp were divine and the flowers freshly-cut. The kinds of things we take for granted, like fresh seafood and blossoms from foreign shores, depend on refrigerated LTL trucking (less-than-a-truckload) to exist.If your small business is basing its growth on just-in-time refrigerated transport of delicate foods and the like, a refrigerated truck shipping service and refrigerated...
Auto Transport
Choices to make when choosing auto shippers
By Ned Averill-Snell
When you need a car moved from Point A to a distant Point B, auto transport companies can save you the time and expense of doing it yourself or sending an employee. Auto transport services can also help save money in ways you might not have thought; for example, to ship vehicles purchased at low cost via classified ads or auctions at distant locations.An auto transport compan...
Container Sales and Leasing
Shipping containers get your cargo where it needs to go
By Ned Averill-Snell
Shipping containers (aka storage containers or cargo containers) are just what they sound like: big metal boxes specialized for holding cargo for shipment by flatbed truck, rail flatcar or ship. Shipping containers are especially handy for "intermodal" shipping wherein the goods inside must be moved among carriers — say, from a ship in port to a truck for final deli...
Flatbed Trucking
Flatbed trailers haul just about anything you can lay on a slab
By Ned Averill-Snell
A flatbed truck (more accurately, a semi truck towing a flatbed trailer) is easy to spot: it's that long trailer with a floor but no sides or roof. If your load is pretty weatherproof and also ungainly, a flatbed may be the way to go. Flatbed trucking is your best option when your shipment is:1. A large or heavy load that needs to get on and off the truck quickly; a flatbed tra...
Specialized Trucking Transport
Specialized transportation requires research and careful attention to laws concerning hazardous materials transport
By Sue Darnell
When your company deals with oversized transport issues such as industrial machinery or military machinery, specialized trucking transport rules and regulations come into play. Many oversized transport services are available, but not all offer the same quality of transport. Specialized truck transportation such as house-moving is a specialty that requires skilled people who are kno...
Ocean Freight Forwarders
Ocean forwarders can ease the trip by sea
By Michael Berman
Using ocean freight forwarders can eliminate many headaches when you're shipping container loads of cargo overseas. They can ease the pain of dealing with customs laws in each country and book your cargo on a reliable vessel.Ocean forwarders or ocean freight brokers often specialize in dealing with specific regions or countries, keeping up with changes in customs laws, por...
Transporting Livestock by Truck
Hiring livestock trucks while safeguarding your livelihood
By R.N. Dolgener
Transporting livestock by truck, whether you need to hire a one-horse trailer or a cattle truck, requires planning, coordination, and sometimes, professional help.Hauling livestock by truck is a proposition that often involves independent livestock shippers. If you'd rather leave the details to someone with more experience, however, livestock trucking can be handled by professi...
Air Courier Services
Transport your documents and small packages quickly with an air courier service
By Amy Jo Garner
When you need to get a package delivered cross-country or overseas today, you need an air courier. Courier services often hand carry time-sensitive packages and documents directly to the recipient. Courier services use commercial flights to transport your package.Business courier services get packages through customs much quicker than standard shipping methods. Instead of a package...
Customs Brokers
Utilize customs brokers to make your international shipments as smooth as possible
By A.S. White
A good import export custom broker can help you prevent delays in customs by making sure that all of your paperwork is 100% correct. In addition, if your shipments do get tied up somehow in the local customs house, a customs broker can use his or her contacts within the customs office to help expedite your shipment and get it back on its way. A quality export broker can also help g...
Air Freight
Find the best deals on air freight
By Ben Hahn
When you have to transport heavy loads quickly, your best option is often by using airfreight. Look for air freight carriers that offer online services like quoting and tracking for the simplest way to follow your packages through the entire shipping process. There are many air freight companies on the web, so getting quotes from multiple providers can be worth it to find the best ...
Freight Trains
Your freight train is rollin' down the line
By Nikki Davis
Freight trains offer you an environmentally friendly mode of transportation that is more fuel efficient, cost effective and has lower air emissions than semi trucks. Freight railroads offer you cargo trains to haul anything from grain, to stone, to coal, to corn, to ethanol/biofuels and more.Rail freight rates are less expensive than trucking or flying your product. You can choose ...
Hazardous Materials (Haz Mat) Trucking
Hazmat Trucking for Safe Transfer
By Nikki Davis
Whether you have a short or long distance to transport your hazardous chemicals and materials, you need the experienced and licensed help of a hazardous material trucking company that knows how to keep your business on the move. You will need someone experienced to properly fill out your paperwork, load and unload the product, and who can react safely in case of an unexpected spill...
US-Based Air Freight Forwarders
US air freight forwarders offer you more than just flights of fancy
By Nikki Davis
Commerce is a moving, living entity that has to stay on the go to be successful. Enter air freight forwarders in the US who provide you transportation solutions for your product moving needs. The company that I work for sends out and ships back equipment on a daily basis. We would not be in business without our US air freight forwarder and logistics company. US freight forwarders s...
Global Logistics
Global logistics companies give you worldwide reach
By Nikki Davis
When dealing with worldwide transport logistics, you want to work with a company that is experienced and up-to-date on all of the customs and country-by-country regulations of your destinations. Your global logistics company will be your main contact for both exporting your product out of the U.S. and for bringing necessary items into the U.S.Global logistics can turn out to be mor...
Cargo Escorts and Pilot Car Services
Find oversize escort services to meet your hauling needs
By Laurel Brown
When transporting large loads, the government requires that you use wide load escorts to warn others on the road of your approach. It is necessary to hire outside cargo escorts and pilot car services to meet the transportation requirements, especially for those businesses that do not regularly transport such loads.The consumer has many choices when it comes to oversize load escorts...
US Based Air Courier Services
Air courier services help you expedite precious cargo
By Nikki Davis
US air couriers help you send your packages rapidly and with great care. Their services keep you competitive by delivering top-notch products fast. Whether it’s merchandise or a recovery package, air courier services deliver.US based air courier services come in all shapes and sizes, and most would bend over backwards to earn your business. Shop around and find the one that w...
Small Package Delivery in Africa
How to find courier services in Africa for shipping small packages
By Laurel Brown
Small package delivery in Africa is necessary for many companies in this age of international business. Any industry with customers anywhere in the African continent can find themselves needing to ship products rapidly and safely. However, the delivery of small packages in Africa can be much less straightforward than similar shipping in North America or in Europe.Shipping to Africa...
Air Freight Tracking
Air cargo tracking keeps your merchandise on the map
By Nikki Davis
Air cargo freight routing can be a cost effective solution if you allow yourself ample time to send your gear from point A to point B. The air freight tracking that your shipper offers will help you make sure that package is well on its way, and it can help you account for it after it has left the shipper’s hands.Air freight tracking is your best friend. You can watch your pa...
Barge and Tugboat Services
Tugboat companies and barge services can do the big jobs easier for your business
By Suzanne Levine
Barge and tugboat services are required for many different reasons. Most tug companies use this equipment to transport materials, rescue damaged vessels, fire fighting, etc. Tugboats come in two different types, inland and ocean going. The tugboat is designed to fit into a notch within the barge. This allows the tug to either push or pull the barge and transport materials along wat...
