I love trucks, trains, planes and everything in between. If it has to do with transportation, I’m interested. I started like any little boy with all the train sets and trucks to play with. And I have always been fascinated by how different products arrived in the stores. For instance, how could that crop of fresh strawberries make it to a New England grocery store in February and still be as fresh as the day they were picked? But as much as I was fascinated by all this transportation, I never had the desire to be driving one of those trucks, or operating a train or flying a plane. So as I grew up, I wondered how I could make a living dealing with the world of transportation.
There are many components in the world of shipping that the normal person just doesn’t know about. For most, sending products just means locating a trucking company and paying them to deliver the product to a destination. It’s more complicated than that. A business looking for a shipping company needs to look at many different key components. What’s the cost? Is the freight company reliable? What routes do they travel? Can this freight company deal with a shipper’s product appropriately? Gathering all that information takes time, thus costing shipper’s money. On the other hand, how does a freight company find shipments to carry? This also takes time and money. I learned that there is a need for a shipper and a freight company to use a freight forwarding firm.
Freight forwarding services allow the shipper to relax and leave the details to someone else. The freight forwarding firm does all the logistical work for the shipper. The freight forwarding firm matches the shipper with a freight shipping company. This career sounded perfect for me. Having my own freight forwarding firm allows me to be in the thick of the transportation world without being on the road myself. I’m in touch with all kinds of freight shipping companies. I’m constantly checking on routes, prices and availability. I also constantly in touch with shippers about the products they need delivered. I actually arranged for a shipment of elephants that were rescued to be delivered to a new elephant sanctuary. Some products need unique care in shipping!
Yes, I love transportation. And I love this fast paced career. The best move I ever made was choosing a career as a freight forwarding agent.