These notes are written from the desk, for the person who has to choose a mode, sign a customs declaration or explain a delivery date to somebody else. Each one takes a single decision and works through what actually determines it.
What these articles are, and what they are not
They are working notes. Each piece starts from a decision that has to be made - full container or shared space, air or rail, hold stock or ship direct - and sets out the costs and the timing that decide it, including the parts that only surface after the booking is confirmed. Where a number genuinely depends on the lane, the volume or the season, the article says so instead of quoting one that would not survive contact with your shipment.
They are not a rate guide, a tariff reference or a substitute for a quote. Freight rates move with capacity, surcharges and the calendar, and border procedures differ by country and change without much warning. What does not change quickly is the structure underneath: how a mode is chosen, where the avoidable cost sits, which documents have to agree with each other, and which handovers are the ones worth watching.
How to use them
If you are early in a decision, the mode-comparison pieces are the place to start, because they establish which constraint binds. If you already have a shipment in progress, the documentation and delivery pieces are more useful, since that is where a live consignment is most likely to be held up. Where an article touches the services below, it links to the service page that covers the practical side.
The questions we get asked most
Each note below takes one decision and works through what determines it.
FCL or LCL? A Practical Way to Decide
When the break-even between a full container and shared space falls, and which fixed charges move it.
ReadThe Customs Document Set That Clears First Time
Which documents clear a shipment first time, and which errors cause most holds.
ReadOverseas Warehousing vs Direct Shipping: When the Maths Works
Whether holding stock in the destination market beats shipping direct, once storage and returns are counted.
ReadWhen a Parcel Sorting Line Starts to Pay for Itself
What throughput, accuracy and parcel mix have to look like before automation earns its capital.
ReadChina-Europe Rail in Practice: Planning Around the Unknowns
How to plan a rail movement when the corridor and border times keep moving.
ReadReverse Logistics: Making Returns Protect Margin
How to route and grade cross-border returns so more of their value is recovered.
ReadChoosing a Sortation Technology: Cross-Belt, Narrow-Belt and Swivel-Wheel Compared
Which sortation technology - cross-belt, narrow-belt, swivel-wheel or put-wall - fits your parcel profile, destination count and volume.
ReadHow to Evaluate a China-Based E-commerce Fulfilment Partner Before You Commit
What a China-based fulfilment partner should deliver, which operational checks separate a reliable 3PL from a risky one, and the checklist to run before you move volume.
ReadFrom the Factory Floor to the Customer: Coordinating a Moulder with Your Fulfilment Flow
How to run the handoff between a Chinese injection-moulding partner and your fulfilment provider, so parts move from tool to customer without a breakdown at the seam.
ReadIncoterms 2020 in Practice: Who Pays, Who Insures, Who Clears
Which Incoterm puts the carriage, the insurance and the clearance on whom - and where risk passes, which is usually not where the cost does.
ReadAir or Ocean When the Deadline Is the Constraint
When the deadline rather than the rate should choose the mode, and how chargeable weight and door-to-door transit change the arithmetic.
ReadContainer Weight, VGM and the Overweight Problem
How to keep a container legal at every leg, from the road axle limit to the verified gross mass declared before loading.
ReadCargo Insurance and Claims: What Cover to Buy and What to Record
What cargo cover has to include, why carrier liability falls short, and the evidence that decides a claim.
ReadHS Classification: Getting the Code Right Before the Shipment Moves
Which code is the right one, why the importer owns the classification, and how to build a file that defends it against a post-clearance audit.
ReadLast-Mile Delivery: Choosing the Option That Fits the Parcel
Which final-leg option fits which parcel and promise, and why the cost per successful delivery beats the headline rate.
ReadWarehouse Slotting and Layout: Cutting the Travel That Costs Nothing to Fix
Where to start when picking costs too much labour: velocity slotting, zoning and pick paths, before any equipment.
ReadPallet Patterns and Container Cube: Getting More Into the Box
How pallet footprint, pattern and stacking decide the cube a container uses - and where the weight limit stops it first.
ReadDemurrage and Detention: The Charges Nobody Budgets For
Where free time really starts, why the two charges have different causes, and how to plan the inland leg so the daily step-up never begins.
ReadShipping Lithium Batteries: What Changes by Air and Sea
Why the same battery pack can sail but not fly, what a supplier has to be able to prove, and the three places a lithium shipment usually gets stopped.
ReadPreferential Origin: Claiming Duty a Trade Agreement Already Gives You
How to turn an FTA that already exists into a duty saving - and why a supplier declaration without the input origins behind it collapses at audit.
ReadProject Logistics for a Robotic Laser Welding Cell: Moving, Crating and Commissioning Capital Equipment
What actually has to move in a robotic laser welding cell, how to crate precision optics for a sea or air leg, which transport mode fits the commissioning date, and the responsibility matrix that keeps the project from slipping.
ReadHave a shipment in mind?
Cargo, origin, destination and deadline is enough. We will reply with a route, a transit range and a costed plan.