For centuries sea freight has remained the most widely used transportation method. Approximately 90% of global trade is transported by more than 50,000 international sea freight carriers around the world. For Australian importers and exports, it’s important to have an established freight forwarder with global networks to handle your cargo to ensure you receive a good quality, efficient service.

As leading international sea freight and air freight specialists, we receive numerous calls each week about sea freight quotes, sea freight rates, and shipping processes where customers need shipping processes clearly explained so they can be prepared and get their cargo moving fast.  Some of the most common questions include: ‘what documents are required to get your freight moving’, ‘whether itemised quotes can be provided’, ‘how much is shipping going to cost’ and ‘what documents are required to get the freight moving’.

Read on to learn 4 common sea freight questions and answers to assist you with your freight forwarding.

Supply Chain and Logistics Managers that manage operations for successful businesses know that maintaining accurate inventory levels is the key to delivering the right products with the correct quantity at the right time. Many Supply Chain Operations find it challenging to achieve this goal and their service delivery levels are impacted as a result. Inability to maintain inventory accuracy can result in huge losses in terms of lost products, lost sales and obsolescence.

Achieving inventory accuracy requires a multi-pronged approach incorporating operations excellence, the latest IT technology, effective categorisation, well defined processes and defined storage space. Third Party Logistics (3PL) providers in Melbourne have vast experience of managing and maintaining inventory accuracy to a customer’s desired levels. Generally, a business can follow some thumb rules to achieve higher levels of inventory accuracy. However, engaging an experienced 3PL who delivers inventory accuracy in a warehouse operation is likely to be a valuable service to engage.

Read on to learn 6 ways a 3PL Melbourne can assist you to achieve inventory accuracy.

Many business owners know that sea freight and air freight services have been competing as freight forwarding modes for centuries. Business owners are continuously weighing up the pros and cons of each transport mode with an objective to achieve economical and efficient shipping with each transaction. In addition, factors such as transit time, choosing the best Incoterms®, product type (high value vs low value, hazardous vs non-hazardous), accessibility, cargo volume, and replenishment cycles need to be considered before business choose a sea freight or air freight service.

Industry knowledge and awareness about the impact these factors have on your business allows Logistics and Freight Forwarding Managers to select either sea freight or air freight forwarding services. If the shipping cost, cargo volume, environmental impact and documentation processing times are the priority, sea freight services are the common choice of transportation. Advantages like less in-transit cost, high cargo carrying capacity, lowering carbon footprint and enough time for documentation processing are also achievable using sea freight.

Read on to learn 4 advantages your business can gain by using sea freight services over air freight services.     

Businesses with global supply chains know that an air freight service is the fastest way to transport goods from one destination to another. What businesses may not know is the speed of the transaction between your freight forwarder and an air freight cargo carrier heavily relies on how quick the shipment data is received by the CTO (Cargo Terminal Operator).

Each week, we receive numerous of calls from customers with air freight requirements seeking fast transactional services. These customers are seeking efficient air freight services that don’t incur delays or additional costs. As a leading international air freight forwarder, one way BCR ensures that delays or additional costs are kept to a minimum is to apply digital Pre-Loading Advance Cargo Information (PLACI) processes as part of a streamlined electronic process. While these processes take place behind the scenes, they can have a huge impact on your front-end service.

Read on to learn why you should consider shipping your air freight with a digital freight forwarder.

Air freight is an integral and important part of a global supply chain for many businesses in Australia. Air freight to and from the major airports in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth has become increasingly popular for shipping time sensitive goods including FMCGs, fashion, product samples, high value goods, spare parts and machinery from one place to another. By using an IATA accredited air freight forwarder that has a dedicated team focused on air freight solutions, shipping speed and convenience are competitive benefits that are likely to be gained by using international air freight services.

Each week, BCR receives a number of enquiries from businesses seeking fast international air freight quotes for a wide variety of requirements. As an established air freight forwarder accredited by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), we assist hundreds of customer’s ship their goods to and from international destinations fast provided the shipper has provided all the necessary documentation prior to selecting the air freight service and the goods are packed correctly.

Read on to learn 4 quick air freight quote tips that can assist you to get your goods moving fast. 

Order fulfilment comprises of goods receiving, storing, picking, packing and dispatching them against orders received within an agreed time.  Efficient order fulfilment greatly contributes to the success of a supply chain as it assists in achieving higher sales for business owners. In our work as a 3PL, we are asked many times by customers how they can improve their order fulfilment rates. It is an important questions as an inability to maintain order fulfilment rates to a desired level often results in stock-outs and loss of sales. Maintaining high fulfilment rates and implementing continuous improvements is likely to sustain or improve order fulfilment rates.

Many factors like order accuracy, sustainable packaging, changing business requirements, kitting, consolidated shipments, same day shipping/delivery, lower shipping cost and order visibility impact order fulfilment in many ways. Experienced 3PL providers in Australia have developed capabilities to assist businesses achieve high order fulfilment rates; however, the third party logistics provider needs to be fully engaged and aligned to achieve a desired result.  

Read on to learn 5 ways a 3PL provider can assist you to achieve your desired order fulfilment rate for a business.

As businesses go global by sourcing and selling internationally, their supply chains become more complex as they are exposed to ever changing global and country-specific dynamics. As a result, successful supply chains are highly dynamic and have the flexibility to respond and accommodate to change continuously. The inability to adapt to these changes when required can make or break your supply chain and put your businesses sustainability at risk. This has made supply chain sustainability increasingly important for businesses in order to remain profitable and competitive.

Country specific trade laws, efficient distribution processes, time saving IT-technology including barcoding, faster shipping methods, effective storage methods, 24x7 tracking and assistance, customised packaging and economic routing are some major changes  businesses experience. Successful Supply Chain and Logistics Managers in Australia know that they have to adopt the changes relevant to their business needs to maintain a competitive edge. They collaborate with experienced third party logistics (3PL) providers to assist them in identifying relevant changes and implementing them into their supply chain.

Read onto to learn 4 ways a third party logistics provider can assist you to adopt strategic supply chain changes.

Being strategic with inventory flow is one of the keys to maintaining efficiency in warehouse management.  As a controlling point of inventory in your supply chain, the warehouse ideally has a highly efficient Warehouse Management System (WMS) as a best practice measure. An inefficient, error-laden system in a warehouse often results in poor inventory management, shipping procedures, order fulfilment and customer satisfaction, making an overall warehouse experience a nightmare for many businesses.

Improving a warehousing experience can be achieved through building an intelligent warehouse with optimisation of space utilisation, automation and returns management processes. While a business owner can go through the lengthy process and often a painful learning curve, using an experienced and professional 3PL in Sydney can assist by the providing best practice services from the beginning.

Learn 5 ways to improve your warehouse management experience and inventory flow with a 3PL in Sydney.

Businesses with international freight movements as a major part of their operations like to ensure they receive the best value for money they invest for their freight transactions. Business owners understand the value of this investment in their supply chain and make freight forwarding performance an important overall performance metric. They carefully set their freight performance metrics and targets to be achieved against each metric.

Smart businesses understand that the performance against the metric can be easily achieved if they partner with an experienced and professional freight forwarder. Setting freight targets and communicating these to a freight forwarder will enable a provider to clearly align their services with these targets, and ensure their operations stay focussed on achieving your freight performance metrics.  

Read onto to learn 7 ways a professional freight forwarder can assist you to achieve your freight targets.

Flexibility determines your ability to adapt, respond or recover from ups and downs in business cycles and during crises situations. A flexible supply chain is required to overcome these challenges and ultimately create a competitive advantage in a dynamic business environment. In today’s economic climate, the real competition is not from business to business but from supply chain to supply chain. In order to maintain a competitive edge, smart businesses focus on achieving flexibility in their supply chain and consider different strategies such as segmenting supply chains, building flexible lead time options, partnering closely with their suppliers, increasing visibility and deploying analytics.

With 3PL providers handling most or many parts of a supply chain, it becomes imperative for you to know whether the third party logistics (3PL) provider that you currently engage or intend to use can assist in creating a highly flexible supply chain.

Read on to learn 5 essential things that a 3PL can bring to ensure you are receiving flexibility in your supply chain.