Freight forwarders are the architects of shipping services. They are systems designers that formulate international and local shipping solutions for their commercial clients.
Freight forwarders offer third party logistics that include the following tasks.
- Arrange for the movement of a wide range of goods by the appropriate transportation carriers.
- Prepare all necessary documents to ensure that shipped products arrange at their correct destinations.
- Advise the most cost-effective and efficient mode of transportation by land, ocean or air.
- Provide latest transportation availability, capacity, costs and best shipping routes.
- Communicate to clients the import and export requirements of many countries.
In addition, some freight forwarders are also customs brokers who can:
- Assess the tariff classification of traded goods.
- Pay tariff duties on behalf of import clients.
- Ensure release of shipments by providing accounting documentation for customs approval.
U.S. Shipping Services Websites
Thousands of freight forwarders are listed on the Directory of Freight Forwarding Services website. Yet, only about 25 of these freight forwarding firms have a home website listed as part of their contact information.
Below are the top 10 U.S. websites for freight forwarders with the most monthly online visitors. Those freight forwarding services that receive the highest percentage of visits from search engine results page (SERP) links are also presented.
Freight Forwarders with Most Monthly Online Visitors
The most popular freight forwarder portal is Air Parcel Express (APX). The APX website is a self-documented online toolkit with instant cargo and shipping rate calculators, as well as essential forms and guides critical to a wide range of regular and specialized commercial shipments.
Air 7 Seas has a shipping network that includes door-to-door service in India, Pakistan, Vietnam and the Middle East.
Air Sea International (ASI) Forwarding offers customized software, specialized expertise to transport some 25 distinct products including livestock, refrigerated cargo and dangerous goods, as well as website cargo tracking for client shipments.
- Air Parcel Express (APX) ... 50,000 monthly visitors (up 10% over past 3 months)
- Air 7 Seas … 14,373 monthly visitors (up 90%)
- ASI Forwarding … 8,624 monthly visitors (up 190%)
- Seaborne International … 4,620 monthly visitors (up 13%)
- BGI Worldwide Logistics … 4,106 monthly visitors (no change)
- World Logistics Services … 3,080 monthly visitors (up 340%)
- United Logistics Corp … 2,156 monthly visitors (up 160%)
- NVC Logistics Group … 2,050 monthly visitors (no change)
- Indigo Logistics … 2,040 monthly visitors (down 50%)
- 4 Seas International Shipping … 1,258 monthly visitors (down 200%).
Seaborne International offers overseas shipping to about 200 international territories and countries including Cuba, Haiti and French Polynesia.
The BGI Worldwide Logistics website lists customs brokerage services as well as short- and long-term warehousing as part of a portfolio of available domestic and international freight forwarding services.
World Logistics Services has its U.S. head office in New York City. The Latin America head office is in Mexico. The company website focuses on technology, with systems that make shipping more efficient and reliable.
Freight Forwarding Websites with Most Search Engine Traffic
The following list shows which Freight Forwarder websites receive the highest percentage of online visitors from search engine traffic.
NVC Logistics Group is a New Jersey-based freight forwarder with group offices in Illinois and California. Services are limited to local or national deliveries in the U.S. The company focuses on moving appliances, artwork, furniture, business equipment, fitness machines, medical supplies and safes. Their website attracts by far the largest percentage of traffic from search engine users.
A smaller freight forwarder in South Florida, 4 Seas International Shipping are international movers who can deliver in remote geographies including Albania, Armenia and Kosovo. Their website receives relatively few online visitors from online searches.
- NVC Logistics Group … 71.4% of total monthly visitors (1,466 search engine visitors)
- Air Parcel Express (APX) ... 60.9% (30,450)
- BGI Worldwide … 52.6% (2,160)
- Air 7 Seas … 35.9% (5,160)
- ASI Forwarding … 15.4% (1,328)
- Seaborne International … 14.3% (661)
- 4 Seas International Shipping … 1.9% (24).
Four websites receive no search engine visitors at all. Among these, United Logistics is based in Georgia that manages ocean, air, truck and railway network deliveries across the U.S. and Canada.
Indigo Logistics concentrates on international used car shipments from the U.S. as well as motorcycle and boat deliveries.
Freight Services Website Directory
Ironically, the Directory of Freight Forwarding Services website attracts 25% more monthly visitors than the most popular freight forwarding company website, Air 7 Seas.
Considering their role as transportation architects, all the freight forwarding companies ranked in this article could significantly improve client traffic to their websites. One way would be to improve keywords used throughout the website pages. Another technique would be to add blogs and articles that will attract regular search engine spiders and other online page ranking tools.
After all, freight forwarders are supposed to be masters of transportation, moving, shipments as well as communication solutions. Should this not include the design of their own websites, optimized to attract the maximum number of online visitors in search of their expertise?
Sources: This article provides independent calculations and insights based on data from the leading Internet traffic monitoring site Alexa, the textbook entitled “Introduction to Customs Administration and Procedures” (Canadian Society of Freight Forwarders, 2009) as well as the Directory of Freight Forwarding Services website.
Daniel Workman - A senior business and finance writer who also does French translations, notably international trade and insurance materials.
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