Shipping goods via sea freight internationally happens on a daily basis and enables us to obtain products from anywhere in the world with ease. You could say that shipping keeps world trade turning particularly for the construction industry.
The recent incident of the sea freight ship getting stuck in the
Suez Canal may have prompted you to consider what goes into transporting construction products all over the world.
If you have ever considered setting up a shipping business of your own or extending your current business to offer this service, read on for a few things to consider.
1. What Products will you be Shipping
When creating a freight business, it is important to consider the items you will be shipping and the current demand for these them around the world. Identifying gaps in the market and establishing how your business can fill these gaps is an ideal way of establishing yourself in the shipping industry. New construction projects are started each day. The question is how is your business going to find them?
2. How will Products be Stored and Accessed
Businesses in the freight industry mostly own warehouses situated in various locations. Warehouse provide companies with storage solutions particularly when packing orders for shipping. It is important to consider the locations of your warehouses particularly when dealing with products significant in size like those of the construction industry.
3. The Legal Side to Opening a Freight Business
Once products and warehouse locations have been sorted, it’s time to focus of the legalities of your business. It is imperative that the relevant permits and licenses are acquired not to mention implementing insurance polices that will protect from potential issues and ensure that your business can trade effectively. One of the first policies to consider is contents insurance. The last thing that businesses want to consider are damage to stock resulting major losses.
4. Building a Customer Base
One of the hardest things in starting a business is increasing your retention and ensuring your customers are talking about you. Initially this can be challenging. Offering discounts and rewarding loyal customers will incentivise customers to return increasing your chances of achieving maximum profits!
How Sea Freight Works
Companies use freight companies for their extensive knowledge of importing and customs processes. Processes can be complex and mistakes are costly to fix. Having a shipping company taking the reins ensures that shipments get to their intended location as smoothly as possible.
Companies arranging a shipment to be transported usually go through the following process:
- Find a shipping company and negotiate the price of the shipment
- Collection of the goods from the supplier to the shipping company
- Transferring the shipment from the port and into Customs
- Goods are loaded into either FCL or LCL containers and loaded onto a cargo ship
- On arrival in to the UK, the shipment is met by customs and released on receipt of duty paid
- Delivery of the goods to their final destination.
Sea freight shipments are not hard to arrange assuming the shipping company is reputable and cost-effective. When ensuring shipments reach their final destination in good time, planning and organisation are required. Despite all of this sea freight is still the most cost-effective way of shipping goods all around the world.
What are the Advantages of Sea Freight?
There are many advantages to using sea freight to import your shipments. These include:
- Cost – Businesses looking to import shipments significant in size and in large quantities find sea freight one of the most cost-effective ways to transport it. Sea freight has been known to be 4- 6 times cheaper than air freight. Additionally, taxes are calculated in a different way to air freight keeping the costs down in other ways.
- The different options available with sea freight could suit a number of businesses. Sharing containers spreads the cost between companies.
- Sea freight importing does not have as many restrictions of what companies can import, in terms of size and amount as other methods do. Bigger items such as furniture or vehicles isn’t going to be so much of a problem by sea as it would by air.
- Sea freight is pretty much accessible from anywhere in the world.
- Sea freight importing is much better for the environment than other methods.
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