Calculate and compare freight costs with modern web applications

The dispatch of a shipment begins with the collection, the so-called preliminary leg (door port), before it is transported over long distances by air or sea freight in the main leg (port-port). The transport ends with delivery to the recipient. The route from the airport or seaport to the recipient is called the onward leg (port-door). When buying or selling the goods, the recipient and sender determine who will pay the freight costs for which part of the transport. This is done using so-called Incoterms (International Commercial Terms). In the area of ​​land transport, this division into sections does not exist. Transport there always takes place from loading gate to loading gate. Calculating freight costs is therefore particularly challenging for transport by plane and ship.

Freight payers usually decide on the type of transport or the mode of transport. They choose whether the freight should be loaded by plane or ship. They also decide how the route from the collection point to the respective airport or seaport should be covered. However, the collection or delivery of air freight is almost exclusively carried out by truck. In sea freight, in addition to trucks, rail, inland waterway vessels or combined transport are also possible.

The freight payers or senders then normally commission a logistics service provider or a freight forwarder to organize the transport. These may also take on associated activities such as packaging, document preparation, customs clearance and storage. For the preliminary, main and onward carriage, i.e. the actual transport of the shipment, the freight forwarders use other companies. These are truck transporters, rail operators or inland waterway operators. Airlines and shipping companies take on the transport for the main leg.

Freight forwarders play a special role in this. They buy freight capacity or various transport services from shipping companies, airlines and transporters and sell them to their customers, the freight payers, with a corresponding margin. The whole thing is complicated because the purchasing conditions of the freight forwarders differ greatly from one another. As a rule, freight forwarders do not simply receive freight costs per kilogram or tonne, but up to 50 different cost items are listed. The best known are certainly the bunker adjustment factor (BAF), currency adjustment factor (CAF) in sea freight or fuel and security surcharge in air freight. The offer items or cost items then differ depending on the shipping area, carrier and airline. The offers that the freight forwarders receive are therefore often difficult to understand even for logistics experts.

A simple calculation of freight costs and their comparison is complicated by the fact that the various offer items and surcharges are not only valid according to the actual weight. The billing basis can also be the so-called volume weight, a fictitious weight per cubic meter. The higher weight is then called the freight weight, which is billed. A different calculation basis often applies to each cost item.

Simplified examples of weight-volume ratio or freight weight:

Land transport: 1 cubic meter = at least 200 kg

Air freight: 1 cubic meter = at least 167 kg

Sea freight general cargo: 1 cubic meter = at least 1 ton

Purchasing transport from carriers and airlines is therefore complicated even for freight forwarders. Instead of making things easier and more transparent for their own customers, the shippers, they pass on their purchasing conditions more or less unfiltered. In the offers they give to freight payers, they also list their own cost points. This usually results in very incomprehensible and non-transparent offers for customers. It is practically impossible for them to calculate and compare specific freight costs in order to decide on a logistics partner on a correct basis.

In addition, logistics service providers also include costs such as demurrage and detention in their offers. These are fines that have to be paid if containers are not picked up from the port on time. In the general cargo sector, this means time without storage fees. There are also often diesel floaters, i.e. percentage values ​​on the collection and delivery costs. In addition, there are ongoing items such as customs and taxes. The whole thing is made more difficult by different currencies and exchange rates.

So the fact remains: Companies can rarely calculate and compare freight costs independently and certainly not efficiently based on the offers from freight forwarders.

Some freight forwarders have recently been trying to make it more transparent for their customers online about the cost components of a transport and why these can change from month to month. These are offers from digital freight forwarders or online options from traditional freight forwarders. These digital offers contribute to greater trust, ensure understandable offers and make it easier to calculate and compare freight costs.

However, shippers should note that they should not rely on the freight cost calculations of individual shipping companies, but rather always obtain several comparative offers, as prices can fluctuate greatly.