Customs brokerage is a process that involves the clearing of goods for importers or exporters through various customs barriers. For this reason it’s more commonly known as Customs clearing. Whenever goods have to cross borders, whether over land, sea or air, it has to be cleared by customs. Even before you start loading your goods into a container, you need to get us involved to make the Customs clearing process go as smooth as possible.

Delivering your goods to your customers on time and in good order is our business. But sometimes it happens that the process needs to be reversed – this is where our reverse logistics service comes in.

That might sound very confusing but in short, reverse logistics means any form of handling goods after the sale (or sometimes before, as in the case of goods sent for demonstration purposes) and transfer of product has been concluded.

There are a few cases in which reverse logistics may be needed. Sometimes in the case of COD items, the buyer refuses to accept the goods. In some cases reusable packaging needs to go back to the point of origin. Such is often the case with pallets, reusable bottles, etc. It also happens that a company takes goods on consignment. When these goods are not sold after a certain period of time, it has to be returned to the manufacturer or distributor. This return process is part of the initial transaction, so it will require return logistics rather than a separate transport order.

Most of the freight we deal with on a daily basis are transported by boat – and for this you will need an original Bill of Lading. It is one of the more vital documents needed for ocean transport.

In a way one can say that the Bill of Lading is symbolic of the goods themselves. The reason for this is that the right to claim title to the cargo may in some cases be transferred to another person by way of an endorsement on the Bill of Lading before the goods have even reached their destination.

Under normal circumstances a Bill of Lading will be drawn up by the shipping line. They will issue it to the person who contracts them to transport the goods as soon as the cargo has been received and loaded onto the ship.

Coming soon...

When you want to import or export goods, one of the main things you need to attend to, is insurance. The obvious insurance that comes to mind will be to insure your cargo. But it’s not as simple as determining the value of your cargo and then finding an insurer willing to cover it for its replacement value. No, cargo insurance can be divided into various sub-categories, of which we discuss only a few.

Never, ever let cargo leave your premises without proper insurance. Nobody can even start to tell you about all the possibilities of what could go wrong with your cargo.

So many I talk to say that insuring cargo is very expensive, so they rather run the risk of letting their cargo hit the road (pardon the pun!) without being covered by insurance. Especially private importers and exporters are often guilty of this. But considering that the cost of insurance is about 1% of the total insured value – this may vary depending on the goods and mode of transport – you really can’t afford not to insure your freight.

We are always willing to answer your questions regarding the import and export of goods. Someone stopped me this morning and asked: “Do I need an importer’s code when I import goods?”

I realize that many may wonder about this, so I’m going to lay out for you under which circumstances you do need an importer’s code.

Standard containers come in two sizes: 20-foot and 40-foot in length. The 20-foot container can hold approximately 1050 cubic feet (the contents of a one bedroom apartment). The 40' container can hold approximately 2100 cubic feet. Specialized containers (hi-cube, refrigerated, open-top, etc.) are also available, ask us!

The transit time of an ocean shipment depends on the port of departure and the port of arrival. For example, shipping from the East Coast to Europe generally takes two weeks, whereas shipping from the West Coast to Europe takes four to five weeks. Vessel sailings are regularly scheduled and we can always provide you with the estimated dates of departure and arrival of our next vessels.

Prices for domestic automotive transport are determined by distance, route, vehicle size, origin, final destination and pickup time.