General
Freight Forwarder
An intermediary that organises international shipments on behalf of shippers — booking carriers, preparing documentation, arranging customs, and coordinating door-to-door logistics without typically owning vessels or aircraft.
In depth
Forwarders aggregate buying power with carriers, manage documentation, and design multimodal routings. They may act as NVOCC on ocean or issue house AWBs on air. Shippers use forwarders for expertise, credit terms with carriers, and single-point accountability on complex moves.
Key points
- Does not usually own vessels: arranges space with carriers
- Can offer customs, insurance, warehousing, and last-mile
- Liability limits differ from carrier limits: review terms
- CargoLinked connects shippers with verified forwarders for quotes