What Are the Seven Steps Involved in Liner Shipping?
Many thousands of containers are aboard ships plying the high seas every day of the year as goods are moved from manufacturer to consumer. These containers are carried on specially made liner ships which follow fixed routes very much like a train or bus service. The goods in the container are part of a particular supply chain and this is a primary mode of moving goods from Australia to the rest of the world. What are the specific steps involved?
- To enable the goods not only to arrive but to be accepted into the country they are destined for, they must first be identified, categorised and placed into the container. This happens at your factory. Once the container is locked it must be sealed using a recognisable and authorised procedure and must not be opened again until arrival at the destination country.
- A trucking company will then transport the container. A contracted freight forwarder will determine the most economical port of departure, perhaps Melbourne. This forwarder is in turn contracted with a specialist container shipping company. This shipping line receives documentation detailing the shipment and sends it to both the exporting and importing government authorities. This is called "manifest data." Note, that it is possible that the Australian authorities will want to inspect the content of the container before it departs occasionally and so they will break the seal, inspect and then reseal before loading.
- Once the container is loaded onto the ship with many hundreds of others the ship is ready to sail.
- A couple of days before the ship is due to arrive at the destination port the captain must radio ahead information regarding each and every container on board and the contents within. The captain must then wait for clearance from the government authorities before being able to dock at the port.
- Once at the port specialist dockworkers called stevedores will arrive and will work with crane operators, truck drivers and administrative staff to unload the vessel. Customs officials will be on hand with all the details that the captain radioed a few days back and will choose certain containers for further inspection.
- As soon as the customs officers are happy the containers are sent to a distribution centre. Usually, this is relatively close to the port. Sometimes they will be sent directly to a customs bonded warehouse instead, and await customs clearance there.
- Once the truck arrives at the distribution centre and everything has been cleared by customs then the container may be opened and the goods within handed over to a delivery service to be sent to the ultimate recipient.
