The term shipping originally meant the carriage by land or sea but now is expanded to include transport by air or road as well. Shipping services are important to any business but even more so for the smooth running of small businesses. This can be attributed to the fact that shipping has become one of the most lucrative business options in the world today. In fact, it is estimated that shipping services earn over USD 1 trillion in revenue annually and it is only increasing. Hence, any business needs to adopt effective shipping services to improve its sales.
The importance of shipping services is not limited to individual businessmen but companies as well. Major multinational companies have realized the benefits of shipping services and hence they make use of a cargo broker to help them arrange shipment of freight and goods. These brokers make use of shipping companies to dispatch their shipments in a timely fashion to any corner of the world. Moreover, if the shipment of freight is delayed then it can affect the company’s reputation in the market and affect the sales of the company.
Most people do not have an idea about the importance of logistics and its implications on shipping services. Logistics simply refers to the arrangement of resources in a particular location to enable a particular activity to take place. For instance, transportation of products by trucks is technically called transportation logistics. This service encompasses a wide spectrum of activities which includes passenger transportation, vehicle transportation, trucking, and freight shipping. All these activities are under the blanket of transportation logistics.
Now let us focus on the service sectors where we find shipping services playing a vital role. First of all, the major component of shipping services is the movement of freight from one point to another. This can either be manual or mechanical transportation which can include air freight, sea freight, land transport, rail, and packaging. Some other service sectors that provide shipping platforms are including small businesses, packaging firms, factories, and petroleum refineries.
The most popular mode of shipping services used by small businesses is the USPS or United States Postal Service (USPS). Small businesses need to understand that the shipping services that are offered by USPS are actually two-day delivery options and do not guarantee overnight delivery. This is because they are provided through the regular post office operating system. As for overnight delivery, only two-day overnight services are available through USPS. Furthermore, packages that require to be picked up after 2 PM on Saturday are generally not shipped by USPS.
There are also other means of shipping such as air freight and ocean freight or even courier services. However, to ship a package overnight is generally a job that is done by Shipping.
As for the cost of shipping, the cost depends on the weight of the goods and the urgency of the shipment. The price will also depend on the type of service provided by the shipping company. FedEx, DHL, and UPS are some of the world-class shipping services. The cost of a shipment will also depend on the mode of transport used for shipping the goods. Airfreight is the most expensive means of shipping goods.