People involved in port transportation business
Freight forwarder (maritime freight forwarder or forwarding agent)
A freight forwarder (marine freight forwarder or forwarding agent) is a business that undertakes the transportation of cargo using the transportation means of other carriers at the request of the shipper. With the spread of container transportation, international intermodal transportation using containers has developed, and the scope of activities of freight forwarders has expanded significantly.
In Japan, it is officially called a "marine freight forwarder" , and it carries out the delivery of cargo to a ship and the transportation work after it is received from the ship. It can be opened with permission from the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. Although it is an industry that handles port operations on behalf of shippers, there is also a type of industry called "New Sea Freighter" that can act as a delivery act for both shipping companies and shippers.
In addition, ocean freight forwarders are also called "Otsunaka". This is an abbreviation for Class B Nakatatsujin, which is a remnant of the prewar era when ship chartering brokers were called Class A Nakatatsujin and shipping companies were called Class B Nakatatsujin. In addition to being part of the port transportation business, in many cases we also serve as customs clearance and freight forwarding businesses.
Role of Freight Forwarder
Marine transportation using containers dramatically improves efficiency in all aspects of transportation, such as packaging, packing, storage, loading and unloading, and delivery of individual cargo, and enables safe and speedy door-to-door integrated transportation. bottom. In addition, as typified by the word containerization, the progress of containerization has made it possible to combine different transportation modes such as truck transportation, rail transportation, river transportation, and air transportation, which were not possible in the past. We have realized a consistent service (intermodal transport) from the land to the destination.
In this way, international intermodal transportation across borders has become possible, and cargo collection, consolidation, sorting, storage, inventory management, distribution processing, packaging, preparation of import and export documents, import and export customs clearance procedures, and transportation routes. An industry called freight forwarder was born, which proposes and undertakes all the considerations and decisions of cargo.
By using freight forwarders, shippers can economically and efficiently select and use the most suitable transportation method from a variety of transportation routes, and reduce the trouble and risks associated with transportation. became.