Don't let a misfired "letter of credit" Keep you from delivering the goods

A recent client of ours was shipping truck parts and large tractor tires to Djibouti, East Africa. They had a letter of credit (LOC) that they showed to my international freight forwarding company after a freight quote was requested & after a firm booking was already in place with a carrier.

After thoroughly reviewing the conditions of the LOC we ran into a rather big problem - it didn't really agree with the freight quote we had already provided or the client's intentions for their shipment.

You see, they thought the LOC is as good as money in their pockets, but they did not take into account it undermining the outcome of their payment & the shipment altogether.

Need to move freight quickly? Use Air Freight Consolidation Services!

You're in a hurry to move freight across the country or planet, and you need to find a solution that is faster than your normal trade routes, but won't eat up your margins. It's always stressful when we have to go outside of our comfort zones but it happens, and we must cope with it in order to complete the transaction.

This is when air freight consolidation is very likely the answer, but like everything else we talk about in the world of freight... "it depends." So, let me share with you some pros and cons to using air freight consolidation services, and how to go about engaging in the process if it makes sense for your situation.

The perfect freight shipment starts with clarity in terms

If you're working with forwarders and other shipping agents, it might be helpful to know some commonly used and important terminology. You want to be on the same page as your freight forwarder, so you can secure the right options for your transportation needs and not end up asking for something that gets interpreted as something else.

For example, lot of people say "FOB destination" when they're requesting "FOB shipping" services. It's confusing, because to those of us in the industry, we know exactly what FOB shipping is and why it's called that. Maybe it seems to you that "FOB" should be enough of an indicator, so we should be able to figure it out. But we live and breathe freightspeak (a term I just made up for freight industry jargon), so our brains are wired a certain way, and our ears perk up when we hear "shipping" and "destination." 

(You can get more shipping terms at www.etcinternational.com)

FUNDAMENTALS OF INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING & LOGISTICS:

Much of the material in this blog post was taken from an article titles "Amazon Top Seller Secrets" but translated using our decades of shipping products overseas. This tips will help you understand some of the basics involved with overseas shipping and are partially connected to what successful Amazon sellers implement.

Reading this full article entitled Amazon Top Seller Secrets will help certain type of businesses and shippers but this particular blog post focuses on the international aspects of shipping and logistics.

Before we get started, we would like to offer some of the focus we offer as it pertains to ETC international freight system's approach to international shipping:

• What To Know About Ocean International Shipping
• 5 Major Challenges Marketers Face (And How to Solve Them)
• Packing & Crating