Making a booking with a carrier or freight forwarder can be a time consuming process. However, by using these three simple hacks, you will have your export cargo on its way to destination in no time.
1. Secure rates in advance
Before you can ship any cargo, you need a valid rate in place for the specific commodity you intend to ship to its desired destination.
Research shows that obtaining a quotation takes 72 hours on average. Therefore, anticipating your cargo flow and working with a responsive and reliable shipping partner to provide you with a valid quotation at the earliest opportunity are key enablers to get you on the right start.
2. Provide all critical shipment details at time of booking
Shipping lines and freight forwarders require basic information in order to be able to process your booking. Therefore, understanding what shipment details are required and submitting all required information during the time of booking is important if you wish to avoid a waste of time and effort in providing additional information retroactively.
3. Work with a tech-enabled freight forwarder
When you use the services of a freight forwarder, select a freight forwarder that has direct Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) established with the shipping lines. This will ensure that your booking will be directly interfaced into the system of the carrier when the freight forwarder updated your booking in their systems.
This eliminates the need for manual processing by the shipping line and allows you to get your booking confirmation faster so that you can proceed to pick-up your container(s) for stuffing. On top of that, the likelihood of clerical errors is significantly reduced.
eShipAsia can help you improve your booking efficiency.
We understand you want to minimise the time you spend on administrative tasks, so you can focus on what is really important to your customers.
We developed eShipAsia to take away your workload and eliminate waiting time throughout the quotation and booking process.
This is how:
1. Get a binding quotation online within 30 seconds
Simply select the origin, destination and the amount of containers you require. eShipAsia will immediately show the available carrier options, rates and sailing schedules. You can fine-tune your search with our advanced filter features to find the perfect departure date, transit time and price.
If you find a product that you like, you can either proceed to book straight away or save your quotation and return to book at a more convenient time.
2. Book online within 2 minutes
You can submit your booking online in less than 2 minutes. We have kept our booking form at an absolute minimum. You can also save shipments as templates for future use.
Need help? You can contact our experienced, local customer service staff to guide you through the process or answer any queries you may have.
3. Full carrier integration
As one of the largest Non-Vessel Operating Common Carriers (NVOCCs), we have system interfaces with all main carriers. The moment you submit your shipment online all information is processed automatically in our backend and submitted directly to the shipping company without delays.
4. Track the status of your shipment online anywhere, anytime
Shipment information is directly available through our online track and trace – anytime and anywhere.
Conveniently track your shipments, view their details and stay updated from pick-up to delivery. Depending on your preference, you can easily set up push notifications or share your shipment information with customers or colleagues via e-mail, SMS, WhatsApp, WeChat and many other channels.
Interested?
Give eShipAsia a try.
