Forwarding: stages, legal framework, schemes

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

A new stage in the development of cargo transportation is transport forwarding - an activity aimed at protecting cargo from any physical impact, which ensures its safety throughout the entire route.

Professional forwarding companies guarantee the efficiency of work, constant tracking of cargo along the route and monitoring its condition.

Stages of transport forwarding

Transport forwarding involves not only the delivery of cargo "from door to door", but the whole range of services related to the organization of transportation of goods.

Forwarder, or freight forwarder, organizing transport forwarding, to meet the maximum needs of the client provides the following range of services:

1. Selection of special transport equipment in accordance with the specifics of delivery. Whereinthe dimensions of the goods and its characteristics, urgency requirements and other factors are taken into account.
2. Compilation of the optimal route. The company's logistics services work out the route in detail, thereby reducing delivery times without increasing its cost.
3. Documentation. The fundamental forwarding service, which involves the preparation of all declarations, customs acts, the regulation of issues with the tax service and the solution of other issues to ensure the legality of cargo transportation.

Thus, transport forwarding allows you to shift the full responsibility for the transportation of goods to the forwarding company. This, in turn, makes it possible for your company to reduce costs and concentrate its resources on production processes.

Legal basis

Transport forwarding services are regulated in chapter 41 of the second part of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. It defines the main provisions related to freight forwarding:

• rules and form of execution of the contract, the rules, the implementation of which will ensure proper freight forwarding;
• responsibility of the executing company in case of poor performance of obligations;
• information that the client is obliged to provide to the contractor and the responsibility associated with the provision of incomplete information about the cargo;
• features of fulfillment of the requirements of the contract by a third party;
• unilateral termination of the contract.

The main provisions of the Civil Code establish that the contract must bedrawn up in writing, with a description of all issues that may require transport forwarding.

When the contract is executed by a third party, the forwarding company still bears responsibility to the customer. At the same time, the client, for his part, must provide the contractor with all the necessary information about the cargo, and if it turns out that false information was provided, all responsibility for damage to the goods will fall on the customer.

Forwarding schemes

During the forwarding of goods, the contractor most often resorts to a multimodal cargo delivery scheme, which consists in using different modes of transport, but one freight forwarding company.

Multimodal delivery scheme is the only one possible when sending goods to another country, as well as to achieve the optimal ratio of price, quality and timing. In this case, as a rule, the following schemes are used:

• combination of railway, shipping and road transport for the transportation of bulk goods;
• interaction of cars and aviation with short delivery times;
• Use only motor vehicles for long-distance traffic.

At the same time, freight forwarding is possible with the involvement of third parties, but only the general contractor bears all responsibility to the customer.

Business Matters

Forwarding code OKVED 63.40 stands for"Organization of transportation of goods" and includes various activities, without which the services for the delivery of goods will be incomplete. But this grouping does not include courier delivery, as well as insurance of goods during transportation.

Forwarding (as a business) is a complex activity that will require a company staff consisting of a large number of specialists: lawyers, logisticians, drivers, accountants and other employees. In addition, significant start-up capital will be required.