E-commerce businesses are on the rise. The average consumer doesn’t want to leave their house to make purchases anymore. People try to buy as much online as they can. Why would you want to waste hours and hours each day in grocery stores and town centers looking for goods and services? Everything a person needs can be found on the internet. The rise in e-commerce has done wonders for the shipping industry. Freight forwarding services have been particularly successful. This post will tell you what they are and how they use technology to streamline their operations.
What Is Freight Forwarding?
Before delving into how technology is used by freight forwarding services, it’s important to explain what they are. Until you know what they are, you can’t appreciate how beneficial technology has been for them. A freight forwarding service is essentially an intermediary between a shipper and a customer. They coordinate deliveries on behalf of shippers by working with couriers. Negotiating contracts with carriers can be difficult, which is why it’s common for businesses to leave the hard work to forwarding services. Letting forwarding services manage shipping allows business owners to focus on more important things.
Warehousing Services
Warehousing products used to take a lot of work. Everything had to be meticulously cataloged, usually by hand. Now, companies like Tactical Logistic Solutions and others like them are able to scan barcodes and log the locations of specific items in their warehouses. Technology has made it much easier to keep track of things after arriving. It is also a lot easier to keep track of items once they leave warehouses now, too. Each item has its own individual barcode. These barcodes are scanned at each stage in the shipping process, ensuring they don’t go missing or get stolen.
Preparing Documents
In modern shipping, despite technological innovations, a lot of paperwork still needs to be done. Some paperwork is digitized, i.e., online customs forms. The preparation of documents is something that freight forwarding services have historically always done. Nowadays, they can do the vast majority of it online. Many countries allow forms to be filled out digitally and then parcels to be affixed with barcodes that link back to the completed documents. Other times forms are filled out online and then printed, attached to parcels, and shipped overseas with them. Were it not for technology, the completion of forms would take a lot of time.
Import/Export Compliance
Import/export compliance is a highly complex, very technical topic. It’s not something the average business owner knows much about. Lots of documentation needs to be completed and businesses have to adhere strictly to the rules laid out by customs. Import/export compliance has never been easier, thanks to technology. As mentioned in the previous section, documents can be either completed and submitted digitally or printed out. If you are working with a freight forwarding company, put heavy emphasis on adherence to customs rules, otherwise your business could suffer because of your freight forwarder’s mistakes.
Freight forwarding is an important part of modern business. Without it, business owners would lose a lot of time. As everyone knows, time is money. The more time entrepreneurs lose, the more money they miss out on. Always hire a forwarding service if your company is involved in the sale and shipping of physical products.