Agents involved in maritime transport.

Before indicating which are the agents that intervene in the maritime transport of goods, we must know if it is a full container or maritime groupage.

We call direct clients exporting and/or importing companies, not freight forwarders.

There will also be a freight forwarder or a direct customer, a customs agent or the freight forwarder himself if he can do this function (according to his abilities), a carrier (company who will pick up the empty (export) or full (import) container and will load or unload it at the exporter's and/or importer's house.

If there is a freight forwarder, he usually designates another freight forwarder at destination who will contact the receiver of the merchandise to coordinate the importation of the merchandise.

In the case of maritime groupage, it works differently.

The shipping companies make transport contracts to the consolidators who offer freight forwarders or direct clients weekly maritime groupage services.

The containers can be 20dry or 40dry/hc depending on the loads they have each week, contracts and/or frequencies agreed with the shipping companies.

In this case, the figures or agents involved are the same as in the previous case, but there is also a consolidator.