Freight which is also called as cargo is transported by using various modes of transportation such as rail, road, sea or air.

A freight company’s job is to get all the details required for cargo transport between shipper and carrier. The company acts as an intermediary in solving problems of both the parties. If anyone wants to ship an item, then it will be difficult to find a good carrier, similarly carriers will also have difficulties in finding their clients. In order to solve this difficulty, a good freight company will assist by giving a data list, through which the search becomes much easier and also assures that the carrier is reliable. Along with this assistance, the freight company also deals with all the paperwork.

After the shipment is found by the freight company, it will get a commission for its work. Freight brokers are the actual employees of the freight company who brings profit to the company. Their main job is to find carriers and shippers.

Carriers can be trucks, airplanes, vessels or trains which are used for cargo transportation. Every freight company is supervised by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration or the Department of Transportation, in order to ensure a great deal of security in the whole process.

India spends around 15 to 20% of its GDP on transport and logistics compared to an average 8 to 10% in other developing countries, reports Novonous. As per the estimations given, in India rail freight will experience steady growth rate of 10% until 2014 mainly driven by state-controlled Indian Railways. Sea transport through India’s major ports will also perform well and grow at 9.2% mainly driven by private players in the sea freight sector. Air freight will also have a growth rate of 8.5%. Over the next few years, rising competitive pressures from cargo operators among India’s immediate neighbours and main trading partners are the main growth factors. 

2 . Freight and Cargo Industry Current Trends

The global airfreight industry globally consists of around 12,000 companies and is worth more than $70 billion, as per the reports given by IBIS World. The performance of Airfreight sector is expected to be at an annual rate of 1% through 2017.

In the past 5 years, the world road freight transportation services sector has recorded strong growth, as per the reports given by Lucintel. And between 2012 and 2017, the industry performance is expected to maintain an annual growth rate of more than 2%, and reach more than $2 trillion at the end of 2017. This growth is mainly driven by increased attractiveness of hybrid power train systems, pressure and encouragement from governments to adopt green technologies, economic growth and the road freight demand. 

3 . Major Industry Players

ASR Holdings Ltd, Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings Inc, China Logistics Group Inc and Yusen Logistics Co Ltd are some of the top air freight companies operating in Germany. Orbit Multimedia Ltd, Willard India Ltd and Sanco Trans Ltd are some of the top air freight companies operating in India.

DB Schenker, DHL Supply Chain, Kuehne + Nagel, Panalpina, UPS, CEVA Logistics, Expeditors etc are some of the top global freight industry players.