Choosing the right delivery service isn’t always as simple as finding the best price. While the cost will factor into your international shipments, there is more that you need to think about. While sea freight can often come with the lowest price tag, for businesses looking for a speedier service, air freight could be the ideal alternative. Here, we’re taking a look at why air freight could be the right choice for your business for their imports and exports.
Reliability
Here at Barrington Freight, we only use the most trusted of partners regardless of the service you’ve chosen, but in terms of unavoidable delays, air freight can be far more reliable with chosen timeframes than sea freight. Setting your cargo on a plane is a far less intrusive mode of travel and with fewer transfers to contend with, your goods could essentially go from home to truck, truck to airport, onto the plane, and then back onto another truck and onto its destination. This is a simple two-change system, while sea freight can often come with waiting times in which your cargo could be moved around the port.
Air freight also comes with the added bonus that, providing there are no weather issues to contend with, most flights adhere to strict schedules, especially where cargo planes are concerned. Every single second that they run over their designated deployment come can cost any airline money, so you can rest assured that they’ll be doing their utmost to ensure that your cargo is off of the runway and well on its journey in no time.
Cost-Effective
While sea freight can often be a cheaper alternative for those with the luxury of extra time, air freight could still arguably be a much more cost-effective option for those on a bit of a tighter schedule. Air freight isn’t always cheap, but with flexibility and a freight forwarder with the right partners, you could easily be given a good price regardless. Each of our partners are trusted, and with various routes that we can choose from to a whole host of destinations, our quote form will find you the best price for your specific cargo and destination and we’ll even pick up your cargo as part of the cost.
Similarly, air freight comes with the opportunity to send smaller shipments via groupage services which can cut down costs considerably. This way, your shipment will be grouped with other small shipments for a faster dispatch and you’ll only pay for the space that your goods take up.
Speed
It’s an undeniable fact – air freight is faster than sea freight. It’s for this reason that it can be a little more expensive; however, this speed can often be a vital thing when it comes to business shipments. If you’re shipping to customers abroad, they aren’t likely going to want to wait for weeks for their shipments. By shipping via air freight, your goods could be at their destination in a matter of days.
Take a shipment to China, for example. Via air freight, your goods could reach mainland China in just three days or less in some cases, while a shipment could take anything up to 35 days dependant on the route and congestion at ports. For those needing swift and efficient shipments, this time difference is something to seriously consider when you come to book your shipments.
Better Transparency
Countless businesses opt for air freight simply because it’s the more transparent option of the two. Of course, road freight would be another alternative, but for international shipments, air freight tends to be the most efficient overall. Airlines tend to offer more detailed track and trace facilities with their services that couriers and freight forwarders can utilise for themselves. This information is then passed onto the client.
Today’s demand for transparency has made traceable shipments practically a necessity and while not every company can offer this service as of yet, the importance of keeping up to date is undeniable. With air freight shipments, this is made much easier, even down to tracking the departure and arrival times of your designated cargo plane.
While air freight does have its advantages for businesses, that doesn’t mean in any way that alternate forms of shipments should be overlooked completely. Whether you have a large container to ship on a budget, or you’re only shipping across to Europe and could benefit from next day road freight, there are countless options available to you depending on your requirements. To ship with us here at Barrington Freight, why not fill out our quote form today? We’ll give you a free quote for your shipment, or alternatively, you can get in touch for more information.
