Glossary term
Freight Forwarder
A company that arranges transport and documentation on a shipper’s behalf, often issuing its own transport document.
A company that organises the movement of goods for a shipper: booking carriage, consolidating cargo, preparing documents, arranging customs clearance and insurance.
A forwarder may act purely as agent, arranging carriage in the shipper’s name, or as principal, issuing its own house transport document and taking on carrier obligations itself. The capacity it acts in decides who is liable when something goes wrong, and it is set out in the trading conditions rather than being obvious from the service.