Freight Forwarders near you

Licensing sits at 46 CFR 515.3, and the financial responsibility amounts at 46 CFR 515.21 are specific. A person in the United States acting as an ocean freight forwarder must furnish evidence of financial responsibility of 50,000 US dollars. An NVOCC must furnish 75,000 US dollars. A registered NVOCC, the category used for foreign-based operators, must furnish 150,000 US dollars and is strictly responsible for the acts and omissions of its employees and agents wherever they are located.

Two wrinkles are worth knowing. Where a group or association of intermediaries accepts liability for its members, it files a group bond identifying each covered intermediary, and the group's own obligation is capped at an aggregate figure set in the rule. And where more than one company operates under a common trade name, separate proof of financial responsibility is required for each, which is why the name on the licence and the name on your invoice should be the same name.

Every NVOCC operating in US trades must publish a tariff under 46 CFR 520.3, open to public inspection, showing the rates, charges, classifications, rules and practices applying between all points and ports on its service routes. Before a licence is issued and before services begin, the NVOCC gives the Commission its organisation name, home office address, the name and telephone number of its representative, the location of its tariffs and the publisher that maintains them, all submitted on Form FMC-1. Changes to that information go in within thirty days.

There are two negotiated alternatives to publishing every rate. An NVOCC in compliance with the Shipping Act and the Commission's licensing and financial responsibility rules may enter NVOCC service arrangements with shippers under Part 531, and may use negotiated rate arrangements under the exemption in Part 532. The Commission publishes the location of NVOCC tariffs online, and an NVOCC without an active Form FMC-1 on file is not considered compliant.

The Commission maintains public lists of active ocean freight forwarders and NVOCCs, and the lists mean something precise. An ocean freight forwarder appears once it has obtained a licence and submitted the necessary proof of financial responsibility. An NVOCC appears once it has obtained a licence, submitted proof of financial responsibility and reported publication of a tariff by filing a current Form FMC-1. A foreign-based NVOCC appears once it has registered by filing a current Form FMC-65 and met the same financial responsibility and tariff conditions.

Read the absence of a name as information. An NVOCC without an active Form FMC-1 on file is not in compliance and therefore is not on the list at all. A company licensed as both an NVOCC and an ocean freight forwarder appears on both lists, which is a quick way to confirm what someone actually holds rather than what their website implies. Match the legal entity name, not the brand.

The difference that matters commercially is whose contract you are holding. With an ocean freight forwarder acting as your agent, the transport contract is between you and the carrier, and the forwarder is paid for arranging and documenting it. With an NVOCC, the transport contract is with the NVOCC itself, which then buys from the vessel operator as a shipper. That changes who you claim against for loss or delay, and which liability terms apply.

The customs side is separate again. Customs business for another person requires a CBP broker licence, and CBP requires the broker to execute a power of attorney directly with the importer of record rather than through a freight forwarder or other unlicensed third party. A forwarder may help get a document to the broker, or translate it, or arrange counsel to review it, but it cannot sign or negotiate it for you and cannot pass a customs power of attorney on to a broker. Where one company offers both services, ask to see the CBP licence as well as the FMC licence.