How To Plan Your Shipment

The Beginning

1. By starting at the destination and working backwards, you can identify what you need to do at the beginning here in the USA, and the schedule of deadlines by which to do these things. Get an idea of the entry requirements (permits, duties, documentation, restrictions) for you cargo at your destination. This will depend on the consignees status in the destination country. Call the consul or embassy, but probably the best source of information will be from fellow staff in the same country.
2. Estimate the cubic footage of your shipment, which will help determine whether to ship by air or by ocean.
   
   Visualize your cargo, in sealed cartons, stacked in a dense cube. Multiply the longest length, the widest width, and the highest height. The result will be the estimated cubic footage of your cargo, which is key to estimating freight cost.
3. Gather together the names, addresses, telephone and fax numbers of:
   • Shipper (where from)
   • Billing Party (who pays)
   • Consignee (receiving party at destination)
   • Notify Party, if any (agent, organization, or associate who may represent the consignee at the destination)
   
   Be precise. Avoid nicknames and abbreviations, as this information will appear on the shipping documentation.
4. You might as well start preparing an itemized inventory. Use a four column form. Write in the shipper and consignee in the heading.
   • Column 1: Piece number
   • Column 2: Contents in each piece. Do not bother to detail items less than $30 in value; instead group these items into larger categories (e.g. say kitchen utensils rather than listing a spatula, whisk, egg beater, ladle, baster, etc.)
   • Column 3: Customs value for the items under Contents. This is a very low value, say garage sale value, showing full depreciation, obsolescence, out of style, etc..
   • Column 4: Insurance value for the items under Contents. This is whatever you want in the event of loss (replacement, depreciated, new values, etc.).
   
   Keep updating this form, including the column totals.
   
   The completed four column form will be used to support your insurance coverage. Make another version by cutting off Column 4 on another copy. This version then has only the lower values, which is thus presentable to customs at the destination.
5. Call Missionary Expediters at 800-299-6363
   
   Of course, this information will be in flux and you will be updating the information as your shipments develops. But this is the right time to establish the direction of the shipment with one of our Project Expediters.
   
   CONSOLIDATION POINT
   1. A place for consolidating your cargo is defined because:
      • Your cargo may originate from different places.
      • Storage is needed.
      • Your cargo needs cargo preparation
      
      If these needs are minimal, you may consider your home/origin as the consolidation point. Otherwise, it may be Missionary Expediters or another warehouse.
   2. Cost is the main factor in establishing a consolidation point, and to minimize cost, we consider the overall routing of your shipment. We also recommend minimal cargo handling.
      
      There is usually less overall cargo handling if your shipment is consolidated at wherever the cargo preparation will be done (see Cargo Preparation). For example, if you can prepare the cargo yourself at your home/origin, the cargo will not be handled again until it reaches its destination. There is less unloading and loading, and your prepared cargo can be sent directly to the nearest departure port.
   3. Many shippers (missionaries and relief agencies) use Missionary Expediters warehouse because we do all types of cargo preparation. Also, being at a major seaport, the shipment does not have to go on yet another long inland transit to a port.
      
      Missionary Expediters warehouse is used because the various items being consolidated are often marked inconsistently and arrive at random times. Other warehouses consider these kind of odd-ball cargoes as nuisances.
      
      To ship to Missionary Expediters, a 40% discount is possible on various truck lines. Call Missionary Expediters for conditions and details.
   4. The consolidation point involves these services:
      • Unloading the truck (truck to dock)
      • Cargo in & Out (dock to warehouse and later back out)
      • Cargo preparation (see Cargo Preparation)
      • Storage--at Missionary Expediters the first 30 days are free
      • Loading the truck/container

Cargo Preparation

1. What is done for cargo preparation depends on the mode of shipping:
   • Air
   • Ocean in containers (20 or 40 units)
   • Ocean in less than containers (wood boxes, drums)
2. Your shipment must be prepared for the carrier. The shipper normally packs the cargo in sealed cartons at the home/origin. Then, at the consolidation point, the cargo is either palletized & wrapped, boxed (wood box), placed in steel drums, loaded into containers, etc.. Other preparation includes reconditioning new appliances (to look used), labeling, sorting items, knocking down big items, wrapping, etc.
3. If you do the cargo preparation yourself, note the following:
   • All items should be in sealed cartons or wrapped.
   • If you load a container, plan on lifting your cargo 4 off the ground, and loading the container within the free time allowed by the driver, usually two hours.

Plan to distribute your entire cargo evenly over the entire floor area of the container. In other words, if your cargo cubic footage is 70% of the containers cubic footage, stack the cargo at 70% of the containers height. In this way the cargo is self-bracing. (If you stack some cargo higher than other cargo, that cargo may fall down on the lower cargo.)

To load a vehicle into a container, do so from a dock. Do not try to build a ramp.

Lock the container (we recommend a Master No. 1 lock) and record the lock number and container number.

• If you make your own wood box, use proper materials and construction. An ideal size is 87L x 44W x 87H.
  Since you should minimize the overall cargo cubic footage, you should reduce from these dimensions.
  Avoid going over these dimensions.
  Each finished wood box must be finally measured in inches. Report these figures to Missionary Expediters.
  Stencil the consignee address on the box.
  Make sure you have a fork lift to load the wood box onto a truck.
• Steel drums are okay, too. Be sure to use a locked ring top; or, spot weld the ring.
  Stencil the consignee address on the side of the drums.
  (Though the drum has thin walls and is strong, keep in mind that some cubic volume is lost because the interior is rounded whereas many items are flat, and the exterior of the drum is measured as if the drum was a squared off box.)
• If you pack for air freight, we recommend sturdy cartons, the size being about as large as a person can carry.
  (Boxes that are too small can fall through the cracks. Boxes that are too big can be dropped or mangled by a fork lift.)
  Air freight should be packed very tightly, because the formula for converting the cubic footage to weight penalizes light, loose cargo.
  Because air freight goes by weight, avoid, if possible, steel drums which are heavy, and pallets which blow up cubic footage.
  For air freight, weigh each piece.
• For any kind of cargo preparation apply common sense. Heavy items on the bottom; light items on top.
  Stack pieces tightly to avoid sliding, rattling, shifting and rocking.
4. Arrangements must be made to ship the finished cargo to the departure port. When the trucker (drayman) picks up the cargo, make sure the driver signs a receipt. Missionary Expediters will provide this form.

Departure Port

1. By its choice of routing and choice of carrier, Missionary Expediters will have determined the departure port. The departure port may be considered:
   • Seaport, like Long Beach, Seattle, New York, New Orleans, Charleston, Baltimore, Miami
   • Inland terminal, like Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas. Door service is increasingly available from small cities, too.
   • Airport
   
   It is the place where the international carrier takes responsibility of the cargo.
2. When delivered to the departure port, the truck driver should present the proper documentation to further direct the cargos movement. Missionary Expediters will provide the driver with this paperwork.
3. Besides the trucking costs, there may be a pier delivery charge and a lift charge, depending on the departure port.
4. By this point, the shipper should have provided to Missionary Expediters all the previously listed information: the inventory, values, piece counts, the cargo measurements and weight, container numbers, lock and seal numbers, addresses, special instructions, etc..
5. Missionary Expediters will execute the export documentation, bills of lading, insurance policy, letters of credit, drafts, customs invoices, packing lists, consular forms, etc..
6. Please note that the carrier earns the freight at this point (freight prepaid). It is normal and customary that the freight is payable at this point, not at the end of the voyage.
   
   INTERNATIONAL CARRIAGE
   • This is usually the most visible leg of the journey and the major cost, the freight. For simplification of terms, we consider the myriad of cost items, like bunker fuel surcharge, currency adjustment factor, terminal handling charge, wharfage, port congestion charge, security charge, in addition to the freight rate itself, as freight.
   • Missionary Expediters shops around regularly to know the best combination of freight, schedule and service. These are considered with the USA inland routing (the choice of consolidation point and the cargo preparation) and foreign inland routing to provide the lowest bottom line cost to the destination.
   • Just after the cargo is on board the vessel, the carrier sends their invoice to Missionary Expediters, who will in turn invoice the billing party for the freight and all the other associated charges (insurance, export documentation and traffic management services, trucking, etc.). These charges cover the movement to the arrival port. From the arrival port, further charges are normally paid by the consignee.
   • The invoice is payable immediately.
     
     If not paid, the cargo will not be released to the consignee. The cargo will then incur storage and demurrage costs at the place of stoppage, and these costs are extremely high.
   • For voyages of short duration, Missionary Expediters will often ask for advanced payment of a cost estimate to facilitate a smooth release of the cargo to the consignee.

Arrival Port

1. This where the international carrier ends its responsibility, unless the carriage is under a through bill of lading, in which case the following discussion applies to Onward Carriage presented next.
   
   The arrival port and the carrier will give the consignee only so many days to take his cargo away. Thereafter, storage and demurrage charges accrue, and they are high.
2. Normally, claiming and clearing the cargo at the arrival port is handled by the consignee, who usually delegates this to an inbound clearing agent knowledgeable of the carrier personnel, customs forms and practices, labor union rules, and local cartage firms.
   
   Missionary Expediters can help find an inbound agent, but we believe it best that the consignee, who is at the site, meet the agent and check the services and fees first hand.
3. From the arrival port, the consignee may view three main steps:
   • Claim the cargo from the carrier
   • Clear the cargo through customs
   • Transport the cargo to the final door.
   
   The consignee should seek to go through all this without a snag (its hard to un-snag).
4. To claim the cargo from the carrier, the consignee/agent should chase after the cargo, rather than just wait for the carrier to send a notice of arrival to the consignee.
   
   On ocean freight shipments, the consignee/agent should already have received the Original Bill of Lading, by which to claim his cargo. If the consignee/agent has not, he should notify Missionary Expediters immediately.
   
   (This is why immediate payment of Missionary Expediters invoice is so important; so that we can obtain the Original Bill of Lading and forward it to the consignee.)
5. To clear the cargo through customs, the consignee should already be prepared with the duties and documentation requirements that were defined at the very beginning. At the least for personal effects, there should be a inventory list, a declaration of value (customs value), passport, and visa. For other cargoes, like donated relief cargoes, a letter of donation, a cargo invoice, and other documents like phyto-sanitary certificates, fumigation certificates, certificate of origin, etc. may be necessary.
   
   In customs clearance, flexibility and patience is key. In spite of whatever regulations there may be, it often gets down to the individual customs inspector.
6. After release by the carrier and customs, the final delivery of the cargo to the door is done by local cartage firms (truckers). Sometimes if the final door is in a city different than the arrival port, this leg of the journey can be regarded as Onward Carriage, discussed in the next section.
7. The consignee/agent should note any exceptions on the condition of the cargo (broken locks, crushed boxes, dents, twisted doors, etc.), as the cargo is given over and received from party to party. These exceptions should be recorded on the accompanying documentation (delivery tickets, dock receipts, bills of lading) and signed by both parties to acknowledge these exceptions. These documents will help process any claims later on.
8. The charges for these activities, from the arrival port onward, are almost always collect, i.e. paid by the consignee.

Onward Carriage

1. This leg of the journey is defined when the final destination is in a different city than the arrival port. The consignee/agent may arrange, and pay for, for this transit as described above, in Arrival Port. If a container, the consignee/agent must return the empty container promptly to avoid demurrage charges.
2. The international carrier may be responsible for the transit under a through bill of lading, where the freight for the inland move is included in the overall freight that was prepaid.
   
   Carriers will offer this service if it has regular cargoes to certain inland points. If customs clearance can be conducted at these inland points, the consignee can act as if the onward carriage point is the arrival port, and the same discussion under Arrival Port would apply here.
3. The international carrier, under a through bill of lading, sometimes must conduct customs procedures to transit the cargo across one country to get to the onward carriage point. The consignee then is obliged to provide requested documentation (normally inventory and customs values) to the carrier so that the carrier can perform those customs procedures.
4. In some cases, even under a through bill of lading, customs clearance must still be done at the arrival port. The consignee/agent would complete that process there, and then the carrier would then be responsible to deliver the cargo to the onward carriage point.
5. The consignee usually makes his own arrangements to unpack the cargo, move the cargo in, and clean up.