Cargo delivery from one point to another provides for the complex process pipeline – starting from the transport selection and ending with the carried goods insurance and their cleaning at the time of border crossing. Therewith, it is essential to meet the delivery dates and minimise freight costs. All these issues are handled by logistics, which includes a wide range of services.
Transportation Services
Such services are focused on everything associated with cargo transportation from the consignor to the consignee, including selection of the means of transportation, working out the route, etc.
Delivery can be made by road, railway, sea, and air. Road transportation is the most common way of cargo carriage due to the well-developed road system, wide range of vehicles (starting from the classic lorries and to refrigerated lorries), and available costs.
If you need to carry heavy cargoes through a long distance (e.g. between continents), the maritime transport is indispensable. Just imagine, one container may house up to 27 tons of freight while one watercraft can carry up to 10 thousand of such containers.
Railroad trains are commonly used for freight carriages across one country, while air transportation easily handles the urgent delivery of perishable products.
One more popular way of freight carriage is multimodal transportation that provides for the use of several types of transportation (e.g. maritime and railway).
The next stage is route workout. At this stage, it is required to have regard to the specifics of the carried goods. For instance, off-gauge goods cannot be transported by public roads without a special permit. In addition, all the areas with low bridges and power lines should be excluded from this route as well. All this is essential for the cargo safety, as well as for the safety of all road users.
Warehousing Services
In case of long-distance delivery there is a usual need for temporary storage of cargoes. For this purpose, the specially fitted warehouses are used. Please note that it is the consignment storage, which means that the logistics company is one liable for the integrity, safety, and security of the goods placed for storage.
Warehousing services include cargo segregation, labelling, consolidation, etc.
Customs Clearance
Customs clearance allows fast, safe, and legal delivery of goods across the border. Customs clearance includes several stages: consignment note execution, labelling with excise labels, goods classification according to the foreign economic activity commodity nomenclature, etc.
Insurance
Insurance guarantees that in case of damage to or loss of the forwarded cargo, its owner will receive reimbursement. In most cases logistics companies maintain insurance against all risks, i.e. starting from theft and to any nature negative effects (flood, snowfall, etc.)
There is also one more term such as project logistics. It is focused on effective solutions for the problems related to project cargo (e.g. in case of transportation of materials or equipment for major facility construction).
