The companies have flexible sailing schedules, and hence, you can ship your goods when you are ready. They also offer services of space protection, ship tracking, and purchase order management when there is high demand. Their programs are adjusted to meet the full demands of the customers. The coordinators on the docks closely monitor your shipment from pick up to delivery, keeping you posted about the progress thus relieving you of the anxiety.

The services include;

• Packaging and removal; this is done with care, professionalism, and quality to ensure that all your goods arrive in perfect shape and condition e.g. furniture industrial products and other effects
• Refrigerated services for perishable goods; goods like fish fresh cut flowers dairy products fruits and vegetables, confectionery, and meat are highly perishable and require specialized shipping  for them to arrive in good shape and perfect condition
• Less container load consolidation; this is offered to people whose goods cannot fit into the container, thus enabling small trades to be able to use their services
• Marine logistics both offshore and onshore; this includes taking care of  warehousing and procurement needs, hiring of ships and clearance with the local authority, processing of temporary import permits and customs clearance, support services such as husbandry services., personal movement, security and crew changes
• Haulage and trucking; the sea freight forwarding companies also own a fleet of trucks that offer a wide range of transport services, ensuring that all your goods arrive at the preferred destination.
• There is automated booking and loading to enhance customer service, which reduces the time required by customers to visit the offices
• Handling of radioactive materials; Their team is highly specialized in handling radioactive materials since they provide staff who are competent and reliable, not only that, they process the required formalities.
• Cargo insurance options; they enable the client to have peace of mind during transportation and allow for compensation of goods in case of damage or when they are stolen.
• Oil and Gas; They have well-qualified crew and quality containers that are suitable for oil and gas transportation, making it easier for the clients in the industry to relax and concentrate on their core business as they allow the forwarding companies to take care of their logistics, such as marine procurement and car hire services.

Effective Crew Handling Strategies

Service Level Agreement: While it is true that SLAs formally document the expectations and requirements of service(s) to be provided in relation to crew handling, it can also become a problem – especially when the scope of responsibility and obligations are not clearly defined or is silent about what consequences should be associated with certain violations of the provisions of the SLA.

The solution here would be to clearly define the scope of responsibility and obligations in the SLA between both parties; clearly stating the terms and method of payment, the consequences of non-compliance, and the conditions for termination of a contract.

Uneven Demand to Supply Ratio: It is most difficult to find an equilibrium of demand and supply for skilled offshore crew members working on special projects. When the demand is a lot higher than the supply of the required expertise, the burden on a highly skilled few will be equally high and would attract a higher cost.

A lasting solution is to find a good combination of people with great potential for specific project expertise and those with the requisite expertise. Provide specialized training for crew members to address major and minor skill gaps among them or outsource to an expatriate party.

Crew Exchange Delays: Crew exchange delays can put an extra workload on crew members who ought to be relieved within a specified period. For instance, in an offshore practice where workers have been wired to be offshore for three weeks, get relieved, and go onshore for another three weeks, crew exchange delay can be very frustrating and could lead to fatigue, high diminishing returns, and could prompt diverse health challenges for crew members.

To get this right, attention must be given to planning, timing, and efficient scheduling to avoid costly delays in crew exchange or relocation.

Visa Restrictions: These are entry restrictions imposed by the host country on crew members during transit. The crew visas are associated with the request for permission to enter a country for a short duration and perform the predefined duties in the designated location. Validity of transit visas for crew members is usually limited to several hours,  days, and months depending on the prevailing circumstances and that is why failure to secure it will mar the chances of crew members completing their mission in the host country.

All entry visa requirements for the host country must be ascertained by the prospective crew adequately informed and prepared to secure visas that best suit their travel objectives.

Crew Member’s Behaviour: Have you ever had to deal with straying crew members? Or the ones disposed to some unacceptable behaviors like heavy drinking, and flirting around town like there’s nothing at stake? Those can be some very difficult groups to handle. These wanton behaviors largely account for the loss of crew members, flight misses, delays, cancellations, and unnecessary delays in crew exchange and clearance. These will have some serious cost implications.

To guard against these unpleasant behaviors efforts must be made to engage crew members in a pre-arrival orientation and pep talks. Psychological evaluation counseling on arrival is the key step to eliminating potential delinquencies among crew members.

Insecurity: Crew managers must be at their best in making all the security arrangements to protect their crew from arrival to in-country transportation or offshore. The absence of a fortified security escort can lead to loss of luggage, and expose the crew to the danger of robbery and kidnapping – especially for offshore crews.

Inability to Secure Shore Passes Inability to secure shore passes is quite costly, especially when the crew is already within the host country but cannot secure a pass to designated project sites.  Shore passes are usually issued to project crew members and not tourists. Before departure to project sites like a Free-Zone or an offshore base for instance, the crew manager ought to have sent a list containing the particulars of crew members so that passes can be issued to them before they can make an entry into the Free-Zone or offshore base for instance.

The solution is to send a list of crew members to authorities of the location(s) where shore passes are required well ahead of time with all the required information so that passes can be issued to concerned crew members.

Natural Disaster: Varying categories of hurricanes, tornadoes, heavy rain storms, and earth-quake can hamper crew movement leading to flight delays, cancellations, re-scheduling, and costly delays in crew exchanges and relocations. Under this circumstance, no matter how detailed the crew manager is, some of these natural occurrences will impede crew movement to the extent that Hurricane Harvey obstructed the movement of crew members to key project locations across Africa. You can imagine what that means.

Are you planning to export cocoa, fertilizer, oil seeds, cashew nuts, or diverse industrial products out of Nigeria to any destination around the world and thinking of how to go about it? No worries, the following tips will help you save time, effectively manage your cost, and achieve your set objectives:

Hire the Right Agent: What you need is a professional Forwarder; an export advisory agent with practical knowledge of the technicalities involved in export logistics processes, including regulatory requirements. Hiring an adequately competent forwarding agent who maintains open and transparent communication on all transaction detail is the first and most critical success factor in the entire export logistics chain. Once you get this right, the other steps in your entire process will have a very high likelihood of success.

Assess the Risks Involved: Assessing the risks associated with every transaction is an extremely important cost-saving step. Your risks could range from your logistics agent, or local transportation agent who can potentially delay your shipment versus how your shipment is handled; foreign exchange at the time of export versus the originally estimated cost of the transaction, and the potential to incur hidden or unanticipated costs. Above all, getting paid on a delivery versus delivering in good condition or otherwise. Above all, the cost of potential damage (if it occurs, because it can) and the implication on your business must all be determined from the beginning to avoid unpleasant surprises.

An Organized Checklist: Preparing an organized checklist of all requirements is key. Your checklist should include the documents required to move your cargo, the specific handling materials, storage (if required for the transaction), what statutory charges to pay, regulatory requirements for specific shipments, persons responsible, and the timeline for each step of the entire process. A checklist ensures that every requirement is closed out without errors of omission.

Double-Check Your Packing List: An accurate packing list helps to facilitate the cross-border or regulatory clearance of your shipment. This information must get to the destination agents for proper assessment and speedy clearance of the cargo.

Compliance: Accurate documentation, cargo description, and classifications are time-saving gestures little or with no additional cost.  Correct description and classification of your export-bound cargo give room for an accurate valuation. Shipments that are accurately classified against the established Harmonized System (HS) code give Customs agents a clear which tariff rates to apply. Any action that does not conform to these requirements will attract very costly sanctions, cargo confiscation, and other punitive actions determined by the Customs agency involved.

As soon as you make up your mind to export industrial or agro products out of Nigeria to any destination, Fortune Global has got you covered. You can count on us for highly efficient, hitch-free export to any location in the world on time, and on schedule every time with no hidden cost.

A Bill of Lading (BL or BOL) is traditionally paper-based evidence of a shipping contract issued by an ocean carrier to a shipper with detail of the goods being carried to the port of destination. It is moved from shippers to consignees, causing serious waste of time and unnecessary expenses. Originally, the term “bill”, is defined as a printed or written statement of the cost for the goods or services delivered or to be delivered. In view of the current digitization drive, electronic Bill of Lading becomes is beginning to gain relevance and its key advantages can be considered as shown below:

Efficiency: With an electronic Bill of Lading, the required information is registered online and sent to consignees without delays or interference. It enables the efficient flow of information pertaining to the carrier, contact detail of consignee, notify party, detailed list of goods being transported, number of packages and kind of packaging, weight and/or volume of the cargo, each package’s freight class, terms of payment (which is optional) and special handling instructions. This promotes transparency because it provides simultaneous access to information by all the parties involved.

Lower Chances of Error: Since Bill of Lading is an important ocean shipping document, processing it electronically helps to identify and eliminate potential errors during online registration due to the availability of forms that can be quickly corrected with standard autocomplete functions.

Improved Security: Since electronic Bill of Lading helps to eliminate the physical movement of paper-based Bill of Lading, potential risk of fraud while shipping. It encourages safety.

Cost Reduction: The adoption of e-Bill of Lading can significantly reduce the administrative cost associated with the paper-based Bill of Laden for global players, which can run into millions of dollars annually.

The conversation on exploring an efficient option as the e-Bill of Lading has not only gained traction but has become an increasingly attractive option, as against a costlier paper-based option. May shipping companies have adopted the idea and this provides a unique opportunity for global forwarders to take advantage of this innovative idea for the foregoing reasons.

The airfreight industry continues to demonstrate an admirable level of resilience in dealing with the scars of the recent global pandemic. Nevertheless, the future of the airfreight industry remains bright with signs of unprecedented growth, as demand for specialized services and e-commerce continues to rise.

From time-sensitive goods, high-value, perishable food products, vaccines, pharmaceuticals, and more, air transportation has proven to be the most efficient, safest, and most reliable mode of freight transportation.

This well-established fact was evident at the peak of the covid-19 pandemic when the world was confronted with severe restrictions on every front, including traditional transport routes.

In the face of the raging global panic, airlines provided the much-needed lifeline to a world in dire need of essential supplies, including medicine, food, and vaccines. Cargo aircrafts kept the global supply chain open, even when traditional cargo routes like sea, land borders, and rail were shut down.

While every mode of transport carries its own benefits there are several plausible reasons why airfreight remains the most preferred mode of transporting cargo across diverse locations worldwide.

Delivery Speed: When your goods need to be moved quickly over a long distance, within hours, airfreight is the best solution in comparison to the other modes of transportation.

The pharmaceutical industry relies on the speed and efficiency of air transportation for moving high-value, time, and temperature-sensitive cargo – especially vaccines to places where they are urgently needed across the world. This was largely evident in the peak of the covid-19 global pandemic.

Reliability: Departure and arrival schedules of cargo flights are so reliable and predictable that they hardly fail to meet designated timelines. Cargo flights are operated with limited delays.

This allows end-users to accurately anticipate costs and meet their project timelines. This also means that customers can obtain real-time information on cargo status and reliably determine their location at every point in time. In this case, it becomes easier for customers to track their cargo and obtain the status of their shipments per time.

Worldwide Reach: Even in the face of social distancing and contactless trade relations, air transportation established itself as the critical connector of every component of the global supply chain, linking manufacturers, suppliers, forwarding agents, shippers to the final consumers.

Many airlines have a very large network of destinations where they can either deliver cargo directly or through their network partners in a matter of days.  Apart from airport-to-airport freight movement, faster and reliable delivery of small, urgent items like documents, books, food, medicine, packages of high value to remote and difficult-to-reach terrains, can be seamlessly achieved within a few hours.

Guaranteed cargo security: While the incidence of poor handling can occur, shipping by air remains the safest mode of cargo transportation, particularly because the rate of cargo theft is reduced and the chances of shipments arriving at destination in the right quantity and in perfect condition are usually very high.

In conclusion, while other means of cargo transportation are characterized by specific advantages that make them viable options, airfreight transportation is an excellent choice when speed, the certainty of delivery, safety, and a premium price are the key considerations for shippers.

In line with the foregoing trend, Fortune Global consistently demonstrates expertise in the efficient handling of diverse airfreights and destination clearance formalities with the following benefits to customers and partners:

1. Competitive rates
2. Cargo clearance within 48 hours of arrival
3. Use of direct flight routes which guarantees fast and seamless delivery.
4. Our Delivery Options include:
   1. Door-to-Airport
   2. Door-to-Door
   3. Tailor-made multimodal solutions.