Buyer Entry
Every forwarder at the fair can quote a container. Fewer can tell you what happens on the day the vessel rolls, and that is the answer worth having before you book.
Contents
Freight is bought on price and judged on exception handling. The price is visible in an email. The exception handling is only visible if you ask about it before you need it.
A trade fair booth is a good place to ask, because the person in front of you is usually senior enough to answer, and because you can watch how they answer. A forwarder who has moved this kind of cargo before answers in specifics. One who has not answers in adjectives.
Ten questions, roughly ten minutes. Take notes and write the answers down; the comparison two weeks later is worth more than the impression.
1. Are you the carrier, the booking agent, or both? A forwarder who books space on a carrier is not the carrier, and the distinction matters when a container rolls or a claim is filed. Ask who the bill of lading will be issued by.
2. What is your NVOCC number? Chinese non-vessel-operating common carriers file with the Ministry of Transport and hold a registration number, which is a matter of public record. GoodHope's is GD20230925153335. A company that cannot produce a number is a broker passing your booking to someone else, which is fine if you know it.
The follow-up question is better than either. Ask which carriers they hold space with on your lane, and how much of their volume goes that way. A forwarder moving forty containers a year to your destination is a different proposition from one moving four thousand, in both directions.
3. Is this the total origin cost or the ocean freight? Make them name the blocks: ocean, origin, destination. A single figure is a number, not a quote.
4. What is excluded? The answer should take less than a minute and should include VGM, telex release, insurance, and destination charges. A forwarder who says nothing is excluded has either not read the carrier's tariff or is hoping you will not ask again.
Then ask what the quote's validity is. Fourteen days is normal on a volatile lane. A quote with no expiry is not a price, and on a rising market it is not a favour either.
A useful test: ask them to quote the same shipment as FCL and as LCL. A forwarder who prices both without being pushed, and explains which is cheaper for your volume, is thinking about your cost. One who quotes whatever you asked for is taking an order.
5. Who handles the destination, and what will they charge me? Most complaints about forwarders are complaints about the arrival agent, and the arrival agent is often a company the buyer has never spoken to.
Ask for the destination agent's name, and whether the forwarder has a correspondent relationship or just a phone number. Ask for an estimate of terminal handling, delivery order and documentation at your port. Ask who bills you and in what currency.
If the answer is vague, ask a narrower question: what is the delivery order fee at that port, and how many free days do I get before demurrage starts. Those two answers are hard to fake.
6. What are the cut-offs on this service, and which one binds first? The shipping instruction usually closes before the cargo cut-off, and a forwarder who knows that will say so without checking.
7. If the cargo is ready late, what happens? The answer should cover the next sailing, the rollover or rebooking fee, terminal storage from the original cut-off, and whether the export declaration has to be re-filed. A forwarder who says 'we will sort it out' has not answered.
Ask a second question in the same breath: how often did this service roll containers in the last quarter. Nobody will give you a number, and the way they avoid giving one is informative.
8. Walk me through a damage claim. The correct sequence is: notify immediately, keep the goods available, appoint a surveyor, submit the file with photographs and the bill of lading, settle. The wrong answer is that damage is the carrier's responsibility.
Follow with a harder one: has a claim on one of your shipments been rejected in the last year, and why. The reason is almost always packing or late notice. A forwarder who tells you that is telling you something useful about how to pack.
Also ask what insurance they can arrange, on which clause set, and at what insured value. If the only answer is 'we can include insurance', ask which clause. ICC (C) and ICC (A) are not the same product and the premium difference is small.
9. Can I see a bill of lading you issued last month? Redacted is fine. What you are looking for is whether the shipper, consignee, notify party, marks, description and freight terms are completed properly, and whether the document was issued in the forwarder's own name or someone else's.
10. Who do I call at 2 a.m. my time, and what is their number? Ask for the operations contact, not the sales contact, and ask whether they answer WhatsApp or WeChat outside office hours. Then ask what the escalation is if that person does not answer.
A forwarder with a real operation gives you two names and a group chat. A booking agent gives you the sales person's mobile and hopes.
Three patterns are worth acting on.
Answers without numbers. A forwarder who cannot say what the delivery order fee is, how many free days apply, or which cut-off binds first is describing a service they do not operate.
Prices that are too round and too low. An ocean rate well below the market is usually a rate that excludes the surcharges, or one quoted for a service that will not have space when you need it.
No interest in your cargo. The good conversations involve questions about your product, your packing and your destination. Freight cost is decided by carton dimensions and weight, and a forwarder who never asks has not started pricing your shipment.
Ask for one thing in writing. Whatever the conversation produces, ask for it by email before you leave the hall. A quotation, a cut-off list, a destination estimate. The forwarders who send it the same day are the ones worth a second conversation.
Most buyers reading this already have a forwarder. The questions work on an existing relationship, and the answers are more informative because there is a history to check them against.
Ask three that only an incumbent can answer. How many of my containers rolled last year, and why. What is the average number of days between vessel arrival and delivery order for my shipments. How many claims were filed on my cargo, and how many were paid.
A forwarder who answers with figures is measuring their own operation. One who answers with reassurance is not, and the difference is worth knowing before the quarter when it matters.
Then ask the uncomfortable one: if my volume doubled next year, what would change. The answer describes capacity — trucks, warehouse space, people on the desk — and capacity is what you are actually buying when you book a container that has to leave on a Thursday.
Some questions produce noise rather than information, and two of them come up at every fair.
What is your best rate? There is no such thing without a shipment attached. A rate is a number for a volume, a weight, a port pair and a date. Ask for a rate on your cargo and you learn something; ask for the best rate and you get a number designed to keep the conversation going.
Can you guarantee the transit time? No carrier guarantees a sailing date, and a forwarder who does is either misinformed or selling you something they cannot deliver. The useful version of the question is what the transit has been on this service over the last three months, and what the fallback is when a vessel rolls.
Q What should I ask a freight forwarder first?
Whether they are the booking party on the bill of lading and what their NVOCC registration is. Those two answers establish whether you are talking to an operator or a broker, and everything else in the conversation depends on it.
Q How do I check a Chinese forwarder is legitimate?
Ask for the NVOCC registration number, which is filed with the Ministry of Transport and can be verified, and for the company's full registered name as it appears on the business licence. Cross-check that name against the bank account you are asked to pay, because a mismatch is the single most common fraud signal.
Q Should I choose the cheapest quote at the fair?
No, but do not ignore price either. Compare total cost including destination charges, then compare the answers to the cut-off, rollover and claims questions. The cheapest forwarder who cannot answer those is the most expensive one in a bad week.
Q Do I need a forwarder at all if the supplier quotes CIF?
You do not need one for the ocean leg, but you still need someone at your end for clearance and delivery, and you still need to know what the arrival charges will be. Many buyers use their own forwarder on FOB terms precisely to keep that visibility.
Q What is a reasonable response time for a quote?
Same day for a standard lane, next day for anything requiring a rate request to a carrier. A forwarder who takes a week at quoting will take longer when a container is stuck, because the same desk handles both.
Q Can one forwarder handle several suppliers for me?
Yes, and that is a good test question. Ask how they would receive goods from four factories, check them, and load one container. A forwarder with a warehouse and a receiving process describes it in sequence; one without describes it in principle.
Related pages
Send us the shipment details and the quotes you were given. We will answer the same ten questions in writing, on one page, so the comparison is like for like.
Email sales8015@goodhopefreight.com | WhatsApp & phone +86 133 9216 2503