October 20, 2024

How to choose a reliable freight carrier?

Choosing a reliable transport partner that will transport your cargo safely, quickly and at an affordable price can be a difficult task due to the huge number of options available. Each company describes its advantages. With such a large selection, it can be difficult to determine the most suitable carrier for your specific needs. In order not to make a mistake, it is important to consider a number of aspects.

Before making a choice, it is important to carefully evaluate and consider professional standards and their compliance with a particular company. We offer several important criteria that clarify how to choose a reliable cargo carrier.

Match the transport requirements and the capabilities of the carrier being evaluated

Reliable companies that have been in the market for many years offer a wide range of services. Be sure to clarify the available delivery options: air, sea, road and rail. Find out if the company has a multimodal and groupage service.

It is important to find out whether the company helps with the preparation of accompanying documents, including the necessary certificates and licenses, or whether it provides cargo tracking in transit. If you plan to ship large shipments on a regular basis, find out if the company has enough capacity to handle the volume of expected shipments.

Meeting and consulting on all of these issues will help you understand whether your shipping needs will be met effectively.

Assess the use of technology

Check the carrier’s use of advanced technology. How much does this relate to how to choose a freight carrier? Directly! Today, technology is essential for any type of business, as it increases productivity, speeds up processes, and reduces the risk of incidents. Therefore, be wary of companies that do not have technology skills, do not maintain a website, and cannot guarantee cargo tracking in transit. The modern work of a transport company assumes that managers will interact with shippers online. A reliable logistics company should use online tools and platforms to automate and digitize all of its actions.

Study the experience of the transport company

This point intersects with the assessment of capabilities. After all, experience and capabilities go hand in hand. If the transport company has sufficient experience, managers, logisticians, lawyers will tell you the correct algorithm for cargo transportation from the very beginning and help you go through it, whether it concerns route development or obtaining certain licenses and certificates. Such companies comply with industry standards and can do their job effectively.

You can check the experience by reviews of the carrier. Many companies indicate their clients on the website as “successful cases”. Spend a little time to contact your predecessors and get an independent comment on cooperation. Avoid companies that are inexperienced and have less than a year of experience in the industry. Perhaps, they will become market leaders in the future. But you need to send the cargo tomorrow.

Established partner network

How to choose a carrier? Find out about its professional contacts. A transport company does not necessarily have to have a thousand-strong fleet, its own aircraft and warehouses in each city. But it is important that it creates a comprehensive logistics network, cooperating with service providers in different segments and different countries. Such cooperation allows the freight carrier to provide a wider range of services and meet the diverse needs of customers from simple door-to-door road transportation to express and multimodal transportation with overweight and marking of cargo en route.

Adequate price

Before choosing a freight carrier, research market prices. You always want to save money, including on delivery. However, you absolutely cannot risk your cargo or delivery times. If you are offered delivery too cheaply, the deadlines may not be met and your goods will be sent as accompanying cargo. Or the temperature regime will not be observed during delivery and temporary storage. Otherwise, where are the savings? Agree, it is much more profitable to pay an honest, objective price, which the freight carrier can explain by “articles”.

Additional service

It is important for companies with a small staff or lack of experience. If the company offers “turnkey services”, this is an ideal option for such shippers. For example, if you are sending cargo abroad, you need the services of a customs broker. If the carrier offers cargo insurance, you need to agree. After all, all these points are important and you will have to deal with them yourself, and each time overpay, receiving “service” from different companies. The same applies to warehousing and loading services.

Knowledge, compliance with regulatory requirements and safety

Transportation service providers must comply with a number of industry rules and standards. Make sure that the supplier you choose complies with all relevant local and international standards and safety regulations to ensure that the goods are delivered to the destination legally and safely.

Long-term relationship strategy

If the carrier values ​​you as a partner, he will offer every effort so that next time you need to deliver cargo, you come to him. For this, companies use different strategies and promotions. Firstly, this is a real chance to get a discount, secondly, you can count on the same manager being “assigned” to you, who has already worked with you and knows all the nuances of cooperation. Well, it also saves time. After all, next time you won’t have to rack your brains over how to choose a freight forwarder. The contacts of a reliable partner will already be in your notebook.

Flexibility and adaptability

In such a dynamic and changing industry as transport and logistics, adaptability is essential. Look for suppliers who are flexible and able to adapt to unexpected changes in demand based on logistics needs in accordance with the type of goods, weight, size, destination, schedule, etc.

Conclusion

Some people think that the ideal freight forwarder is simply one who can transfer goods from one point to another. But practice and the above criteria show that this is much more than just a supplier of goods or raw materials.

Keeping these key points in mind, you will be able to build productive relationships with reliable suppliers of transport services. Neolit ​​Logistics employs experts in logistics and transportation services with over 16 years of experience. We help our clients become more competitive by optimizing their logistics operations and offering personalized service in accordance with the needs and characteristics of their business. We offer turnkey services so that our clients can forget about logistics aspects and focus on other important areas of activity. Want to know how we can be useful to you in your specialized environment? Contact us and let’s talk about it in more detail.

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