Transport organizer

The term “transport organizer” relates to several professions:

• Consolidators group together goods coming from different shippers in order to fill containers or trucks as well as possible. Consolidators have a warehouse with platforms, handling equipment and staff.
• Charterers make the needs of clients meet common carrier solutions in exchange for a chartering fee. They bear the transport expenses which they negotiate (sales and purchase) but do not own any warehouse, handling equipment nor do they employ any staff. They have to organize transportation by expediting the carrying vehicle to the shipper to organize a direct delivery to the consignee. They must deal with heavy batches: it used to be considered that chartered batches should at least weigh three tons. Today charterers deal with batches of 1 ton or more.
• Town office operators deal with parcels or LTL shipments and deliver them separately to carriers or other brokers.  They do not take care of transport but only of the transmission to the carrier or to the client depending on whether they ship or receive goods.
• International transport organizers are also often called forwarders. They are, in reality, freight forwarders and customs brokers who manage the multimodal logistical chain from the shipper to the consignee, sometimes at the other end of the world. They act on behalf of the client regarding transport, insurance, Customs clearance, modal choice, etc. They have an extensive network of correspondents abroad.

Source: multiple Internet sources, specialized literature, testimonials (Pratic-Export, Pôle-emploi cards, Wikipedia, Onisep, CNRTL, Umep à la Page…)