When you go out to ship any item to a friend halfway around the world, all you do is visit the nearest courier office, hand over the item and file a form. Then, you just pay the amount due and leave. For the next few days, you just check back on the provided link in order to track your item. Soon after, you receive a message saying that the goods were delivered. While the whole process seems relatively easy from your viewpoint, there are a number of complex systems in place.
The goods aren’t just sent from one place to another so easily. Since courier companies have so many different locations and so many different products to transport, they have to make sure that nothing gets mixed. There are a lot of different controls in place that prevents goods from going missing. The international cargo shipping is one of the largest in the world. Companies usually compete neck to neck for customers. In India alone, the courier industry has expanded rapidly in the past few years.
The reason for that is pretty simple: more and more Indians have begun traveling abroad. As more Indians have settled in different parts of the world, they have started sending items to and fro. That’s why international cargo shipping in India has become such a booming industry. More and more people want to hire the services of reliable companies that can transport their goods on time. Here’s how it works:
The Sorting Process
When you leave the goods in the courier company’s office, there are agents in the office that take your item and pack it properly. If it’s a fragile item, it is put into a cardboard box with lots of packing material. The words “fragile” are marked on the package too. After this, the item is sorted depending upon where it’s headed.
Shipping
Courier companies generally have agreements with international airlines and freight shipping companies. Depending upon where the product is headed, it is put onto a cargo airplane and shipped off to its destination. Some courier companies also have contracts with shipping agencies. Large items are often delivered via ships.
Once the products arrive at their destination, they are received at the airport by the courier company’s division. The products are sorted based on their destination again and sent to the regional offices. From the regional office, they are handed out to the delivery riders. These delivery riders take the products and deliver them at the given address. Along the way, the bar codes on the packages are updated accordingly. This allows you to track the products online.
