In this article, we will tell you what a freight agent is, what its duties are, and how you can get this profession. An air freight agent is not a position of a single person, as is the case with passenger transportation, but a whole party in the chain of cargo transportation participants. This chain includes the sender of the cargo, the recipient, the carrier itself, and may also include a ground handling agent.
What does a freight agent do?
As defined by the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations, or simply FIATA, a freight forwarder is a company or individual that provides clearance and organization services for freight forwarders for businesses or individuals.
The freight agent is directly involved in working with the client:
- he receives the goods;
- prepares them for departure;
- deals with registration and insurance.
At first glance, it may seem that the agent is an intermediary that you can bypass and save on his services, but no. Its services are necessary, since the carriers themselves provide transportation services, and not everything else, and it is impossible to do without it.
This is a completely independent third party transaction between the carrier and the sender, which does not own the transport or the authority to transport goods in a different way. She is also associated with a profession such as freight broker, and these two specialists work in the same chain.
What do you need to be a freight agent?
The ground handling service, represented by the cargo transportation manager, accepts applications for cargo transportation from senders in writing, or on the official letterhead of the organization, where it is necessary to indicate in detail information about:
- the type of the cargo;
- weight and dimensional data;
- volume;
- the number of places;
- the nature of the packaging;
- availability of accompanying documents;
- contacts of the sender and recipient;
- form of payment;
- date and route of departure.
Based on the application, the possibility of transportation is considered. The consignor is notified of the permission, and informed about further actions for the submission and payment of the cargo.
What percentage does a freight agent make?
Freight broker salaries can vary. A freight broker may work for a commission, and some movers may receive an annual salary. Self-employed movers must pay expenses such as registration fees, license fees, office equipment, insurance bonds, and other expenses. Before a freight broker can start making money, the shipper needs to establish contacts, unless the freight broker is working with a company that already exists and has shipping customers. On average, the percentage of earnings can be up to 10%, depending on the contract with customers.
Is it worth being a freight broker agent?
This job requires a broker with a general knowledge of merchant shipping. He must have comprehensive information on: the freight market conjuncture, its trends, the level of freight rates in various directions; imagine the deployment of free courts in the area of interest to him and the level of demand for them; know the sources and ways of obtaining quotations of goods and the goods themselves, and much more, depending on the specific situation. All of these responsibilities make freight brokerage so in-demand in today’s work. And this direction will only gain momentum in the near future.
You can pass freight broker training in our company. We train specialists, and we can also help you form a work team. For more information, please contact our specialists who will advise you on your issue.