If you are planning a move, be it an office relocation, moving to a new home (either in the same city, same state or even country) or an overseas relocation, or what about planning for a trip overseas for the likes of exhibitions and more, there is much planning to be done to ensure that you have everything in your task list taken care. You really need to pay heed because if you don’t plan your shipment ahead of time, you may have numerous issues to deal with and not to mention the unwanted stress. We have put together some tips to plan your shipment ahead of time; keep reading!
Plan Your Shipment – Set Aside Packing Time
When it comes down to meeting deadlines, we usually plan backwards from that date. Thus, you keep ample time for various tasks and a bit of buffer time as well for anything that gets delayed for realistic timings. It’s always a good idea to plan for Plan B so that you don’t drop the ball and miss your deadline and still get everything done efficiently and accurately. So, when it comes to ensuring you plan your shipment ahead of time, set aside time for packing. Packing takes a lot of time depending on the type of goods – thus get started early or get help. From there onwards you also need to account for your goods get from your address to port, and then loaded onto the vessel and also for it to reach the destination.
Plan Your Shipment – Be Wary of Extenuating Circumstances
As with any sea freight shipment, you need to keep in mind that bad weather and natural disasters, as well as other delays such as transshipment issues, and various other factors than can be attributed for delays. Whilst you can get shipping insurance, keeping a buffer time between your deadline would be smart.
Plan your Shipment – Communicate
Whether it’s a relocation or an event shipment, keep the different parties informed and communicate effectively between the shipping line, freight forwarder (that’s us, Transco Cargo), clearing agent, documentation teams, banks, etc so that everything falls in line and everyone is aware of the transit time and lead time kept aside for any issues that come up. Factoring in budgeted transit time, and keeping a buffer/lead time can ensure that you have enough time to meet your deadlines effectively without an issue.
Plan your Shipment – Stick to a Direct Route
Transshipment means delays as you have stops and deconsolidation at different ports enroute. This occurs during LCL (less than container load) shipments, thus you can choose FCL shipment even through you may not have enough to fill a 20 foot container. If you plan your shipment this way, you will not need have transshipment delays in mind.