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ExecutiveChronicles | Is Ocean Freight Best for International Shipments? | Shipping items internationally as a business can be tough, especially if your company has been struggling with a tight budget and can’t afford to spend too much at once. However, ocean freight offers a great way to move a large number of items at an affordable cost.
What makes ocean freight so useful for international shipping, and what kind of situations does it suit best? Here is all you will want to know if you are tempted to look into sea freight as an option.
Speed and Efficiency
While ocean freight may not be as fast on a per-delivery basis as air freight, it offers something far more useful – efficiency. Most ocean freight runs carry thousands, if not tens of thousands, of individual items, and that makes them a very efficient way to transport things.
While your first ocean freight delivery might arrive later than delivering products through air freight, you are going to get far more of your product moved with every shipment. This makes that individual shipment far cheaper and much more efficient, something that can really make a difference.
Cost
The cost of getting repeated international shipments through ocean freight can be much lower than you might expect, and many companies rely on ocean freight specifically because it can be so cheap. Not only does it cost less than having to do multiple air freight flights, but it scales well with larger shipments.
These kinds of sea freight deliveries become cheaper and cheaper on a per-item basis as you add more items to the shipment, meaning that they can be perfect for moving large amounts of smaller products. It is much more cost-effective to move one thousand appliances than five hundred, even if it would cost more on paper.
Pollution
While not every company cares about saving the environment as much as others, ocean freight can be very carbon-efficient since you are moving more items while burning the same amount of fuel. Larger ships can take a lot of fuel to move, but they also have much larger carrying capacities.
It is important to remember that the average freight ship will be designed for both capacity and speed, not just one or the other. A decent ship will be able to move a lot of products from one port to another very quickly and efficiently, reducing the amount of pollution that they produce overall.
Convenience
Ships may not be the fastest option for moving a lot of major products, but they are one of the most convenient for multiple different reasons. Not only do they beat road traffic, which can be a common cause of delays, but they can usually dock in ports in major cities.
These ports also tend to have very good distribution networks, which can help move your products and equipment to the right places fairly quickly. Beyond that, ocean freight is the most reliable way of keeping costs down over long distances and usually involves good tracking software to help you check where your shipment is.
If you want to learn more about ocean freight, then it is important to learn it from a company in the industry. Do not hesitate to do your research and look at what a given company can offer.
