Checking Cargo at Freight Forwarder and Consolidation Points

When you ship goods to Uzbekistan, or through it, they often pass through a freight forwarder's warehouse where the cargo of several owners is grouped before it travels on in a single container or truck. This point carries a particular risk: similar cartons, close shipping marks, many hands touching the cargo, and a shortage that may not appear until the destination weeks later, when it is hard to say where it occurred. A short check at the consolidation point spares you much of that uncertainty.

What consolidation means

Consolidation means placing goods from more than one owner in one container or vehicle, to be sorted out on arrival. Each consignment has shipping marks written on its cartons, a packing list describing it, and a shipping document naming the sender and the receiver. If one mark gets mixed up with another, or a carton falls into somebody else's pile, the goods are lost in practice even if they are not lost in fact. The commonest slips at this stage are a carton loaded onto the wrong truck, a consignment split between two containers while the papers still describe it as one, a part left behind in the warehouse and forgotten, and packaging opened for re-sorting so that the contents are damaged.

Four checks at the consolidation point

1. Marks: compare the mark written on each carton with the packing list. A missing, different or smudged mark is a warning.
2. Counts: count the pieces, cartons or pallets, and do not rely on the gross weight alone. Then compare the count with the documents. Weight is useful as a rough comparison, not as proof.
3. Condition: photograph the consignment before it is grouped, and record cartons that are damaged, damp or open, and any sign of opening or tampering.
4. Papers: check that the documents agree with one another, and that there is a receiving signature with its date, hour and the name of the person who signed.

Useful habits include asking for the loading tally signed by the driver or loading supervisor, noting the container number and seal number at the moment of closing, and keeping a copy of the packing list in your own mail before the cargo leaves.

A worked example (conditional figures)

You have 40 cartons carrying the mark GD-117. The forwarder's record says it received 40. When the count is made at the consolidation point, 38 cartons are found with the mark GD-117 and two with the mark GD-171, placed in another owner's pile. The digits were most probably transposed when the marks were written. The shortage is apparent only: the two cartons exist but are in the wrong place, and the other owner has a matching surplus. Had no count been made, the consignment would have reached its destination short, and an argument about responsibility would have started between the forwarder, the carrier and the warehouse at the destination. The case is put right by a short record signed by the two owners concerned and the forwarder, under which the two cartons are moved to your consignment before loading.

What not to touch

Goods in sealed containers, or under customs control, are not opened or moved without the permission of the forwarder and, as the case may be, your customs broker. The conditions and procedures are for a local specialist. Do not rely on a receipt alone: it shows that cargo was received, not that it is sound. In such cases the team limits itself to photographing the seals, recording their numbers and the condition of the containers from the outside, and then decides what can be counted and what cannot.

Questions for the forwarder

• How long will my cargo stay in your warehouse, and what is charged beyond any free period?
• How do you keep the cargo of different owners apart?
• To whom is the cargo released, and against which documents? Ask your adviser about the legal effect.
• Is the cargo insured while in your warehouse, and for whose benefit?
• How and within how many hours will I be told of damage or shortage?
• Who keeps the receiving and loading records, and for how long?
• Is cargo repacked or are pallets broken down, and is that recorded?

In short

Consolidation points are places where everything gets mixed, and that is why they deserve an independent eye: marks, counts, condition and papers. WarehouseDepo carries out this check on site for the owner of the cargo: it counts, photographs the marks, matches the documents and reports what is confirmed and what needs follow-up with the forwarder.