Do not stop at exploring cheaper trucking services via your service provider. Bundling as a best practice provides for huge savings. Consider that bundling your multiple air shipments into one ocean shipment may be feasible for cost savings if your inventory or customer delivery dates permit a longer traveling time. Work with your service provider as well as your foreign supplier to evaluate whether they are receiving a cheaper tonnage rate under their own steamship line contracts. As well, you may inquire if they are aware of routes that could be quicker. It is highly recommended that a firm research the routing paths of the various airlines and steamship lines prior to booking a flight or vessel. For example, a shipment destined to Chicago could stop first in the port of Long Beach, California and then transfer to rail for further movement. This could be because of costs or unavailable direct routing from one port to another.

Smaller U.S. ports may have a less-knowledgeable government import staff and adopt different port practices (even though they will claim they do not). Utilizing a larger U.S. port for import activity has its benefits. Customs and OGAs in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Charleston have experienced staffs and know the import drill well. We are not promising, by using these ports, that shipments will clear effortlessly, but there are advantages to having Customs in a particular port become familiar with...