Freight and Shipping

Freight is transporting goods by water, air or sea, and shipping is the most commonly used mode of transport for carrying freight from one place to another. The shipping industry forms 90% of world trade; nearly 50,000 ships that make up the international trading fleet are technically sophisticated. The cost of a new ship varies between US $100 million to nearly $200 million.

Freight is classified as incoming freight and outgoing freight. In most cases, in regards to incoming freight, the international goods arrive by water or air. Domestic shipments find en route either by roads or by air. In case of the outgoing freights service providers basically send the goods either by sea or by road. Only fragile and perishable items are transported by air.

Freights is often moved by ship. Most of the imports and exports of a nation are solely dependent on the shipping industry. For an economy to flourish, the shipping industry plays a vital role in not only transporting produce to international markets but also bringing raw materials back into the nation. The industry is classified as intrinsically global. The shipping industry has a unique business set-up: a ship can be owned by someone, managed by another, registered by a third country and manned by people of an entirely different nation. Because of its international characteristics, its safe operation is regulated by United Nations agencies. Officers in the ships from different nations are trained in accordance to the global standards.

It is imperative that an individual makes the effort to identify the best service provider while shipping goods from one place to another. Documents such as bill of landing, signature on the receipt document, proper addresses in the papers, and contracts should be made before getting into a deal with the company, so that the goods reach their destination intact.