Avoiding Mistakes On Your First Time Shipping Cargo Overseas

If you're a business owner preparing to ship containers across country lines for the first time, there are a few pitfalls you should be aware of in order to avoid them. Here are some problems many companies using transport services for containers for the first time fall into including how you can avoid these same mistakes.

Failing to Declare Organic Cargo

If your container needs to go through customs, then you need to make sure that you declare anything organic inside the container. Even if you only have a small amount of organic material and 90 percent of it is not, this is still going to be a potential problem if you don't inform custom agents beforehand.

Not Insuring Cargo

Transporting large shipping containers is sometimes a risky business, especially if they go overseas. There's no one who can guarantee that everything makes it perfectly. If your shipment is important enough, you're going to want to make sure that you have insurance on any items that are valuable enough.

The best companies can keep attrition rates low, but they don't control every step of the process, and when shipment handlers in poorer countries pass on shipments, items are sometimes going to get stolen. Insurance helps guard against these losses.

Overtime Charges

In order to avoid overtime charges, you should plan to get everything packed into containers within two hours of the shipment personnel arriving at the site. Usually, this is how long you have included in the charge for the shipment. If it takes longer, you might be charged for more time which is wasteful on all accounts.

Forgetting About Temperature Changes

It's easy to think only about the conditions where you ship your containers and the location where they are going to arrive. But, the route matters as well. If your shipping route is going to take you through areas that are very cold or very hot, you need to prepare for this ahead of time. This means that you need to take precautions if you're shipping cargo sensitive to temperature.

Some companies can offer this kind of temperature protection as part of the package, but you have to look into it yourself.  You may also have to worry about having your own measures inside of the company's transport containers depending on the route and what exactly you'll be transporting.

If you keep these approaches in mind, your first time shipping across country lines or even across the ocean should work out fine. The important thing is preparation. Contact a business, such as Slana Inc., for more information.   


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