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Bob called again. He was becoming a regular, and by now I knew one thing about him: Bob liked numbers. Especially when it came to transportation costs. “I have three quotes. One is $4,000, one is $4,300, and one is $4,600. Obviously, I should take the $4,000 one, right?” I asked him: “Are you actually comparing the same thing?” Bob looked at me. “What do you mean?” A freight quote is a price for a specific transportation service. Before comparing the numbers, Bob needs to und

Bob announced himself for a visit and said he now knows how I like my coffee. This is fun! “I got an ocean freight quote of $4,500 for a container from Taiwan to the US West Coast. Is that really what it costs us to get the product here?” This question is worth pursuing. Besides comparing the modes of transportation (air vs. ocean) there are many factors to look at that may influence the cost of a shipment. Bob determined that they want to ship ocean freight because his compa

Ocean freight costs less, but air freight is much faster. Understanding urgency, inventory, and the cost of running out of product can help businesses choose the right transportation mode.

Bob called and asked what kind of coffee I prefer – he wanted to see me and seemed to have an urgent question. “Now that I am responsible for our supply chain I really want to understand it all. So I went through our shipping documents of the recent months and noticed inconsistencies. Some commercial invoices and bills of lading show ‘Incoterms: EXW’, others read a three-letter code, such as ‘DAP’ without the word Incoterms. And I found documents without any of it. What does

Bob, my client, was back. After our conversation about international logistics he wanted to discover more. Bob’s company imports about 200 containers a month from Asia and they book their shipments directly with the ocean carriers. Bob is a smart man, but newer to his global transportation responsibilities. He wanted to learn more and get a better understanding of international shipping and logistics. His goal was to explore alternatives to the sentiment This is how we have

I recently had a conversation with Bob about the complexity of international logistics and transportation. Bob is one of my customers and it became apparent that he knew a lot about their business but was quite lost by tying together all the involved disciplines of international logistics. Bob is a smart and humble man and said: “Let’s start at the beginning. Please explain it to me in simple terms.” International logistics or global transportation (aka Freight Forwarding) is