@Dread First Impressively detailed post, appreciate the time you put into it.
To save your time and energy, I'm simply gonna ask you for any book or article would you recommend to read, that goes more in detail about what you were talking about so I'd have a better understanding on how these logistic processes work.
Thank you for the kind words, my good man. Truthfully, most of my knowledge was picked up on the job while also doing some research on my own to better understand what kinds of paper I'm pushing. Logistics, as a whole, is a nebulous field with tons of quirks, oddities, and nuances. The information I put out is
technically available, but so much of it is buried behind paywalls or account registrations for the free PDFs. Beyond actually applying to work as an import/export agent at a 3PL firm near your closest airport/seaport, here are some starting points I'd recommend (Note: I'm arbitrarily picking and choosing links here; a lot of this stuff is buried in corporate portals and stuff like that; please research this stuff on your own):
1)
Incoterms 2020 - The actual website for the International Chamber of Commerce requires account registration, and possibly a paywall. Thankfully, many other websites make this information freely available, albeit truncated and simplified for the sake of brevity. Incoterms are regularly updated every 10 years, with Incoterms 2020 supplanting Incoterms 2010 and so on. Some exporters still use older terminology (i.e. DDU for Delivered, Duties Unpaid from 2010 which translates to DAP in the 2020 context), but for the most part, the information still remains accurate minus specific quirks here and there.
2)
Waybills - All cargo that gets transported via import/export processes must have a clearly defined waybill. Think of it like like your airline ticket for air cargo or your ocean ticket for sea cargo. Clearly outlines point of origin, exporter, importer, HS codes, term of sale, freight prepaid/collect, stuff like that. Sometimes referred to as "Bill of Lading," but in a more generalised sense. You have master bills of lading that refer to the cargo on the vessel itself, and house bills of lading. The former deals primarily with the carrier itself, whilst the latter deals with the actual shipment and outlines the buyer, seller, and so on.
3)
Delivery Orders - If the cargo cleared customs and all import fees are paid at the terminal, the cargo can be recovered. This is often conflated as a "bill of lading" by truckers, but there's an important distinction to be made. Delivery orders are what specifically allows the carrier to release the freight, as it signifies everything is kosher and that the trucker can get that cargo the hell out of there. Bills of lading more akin to a contract and have more varied applications beyond trucking. Delivery orders can be marked "prepaid" where the forwarder pays the trucker or "collect" where the importer or final destination pays the trucker directly. Cash on Delivery is also a thing if the customer has a limited credit history or is not well-established yet with the forwarder or delivery vendor.
4)
Terminal Service Fee - Also goes by "terminal handling charge," "import service fee," "ground handling fee" or whatever else. Essentially, the cost that you must pay at the terminal to get the cargo the hell out of there. There are international conventions that govern the terminal handling charges at ocean container ports, but none such provisions for airports. Sometimes the fee is flat, other times it's calculated by volumetric weight.
5)
Bonded cargo - In short: let's say your cargo just arrives at the airport, but the ground handler's being a jackass and they only give you 24 hours to get that shit the fuck out of there before they start charging you storage. You can initiate a transfer of the cargo to a bonded warehouse (i.e. Container Freight Station) so that you have more time to get the customs cleared. A "bond" in this situation indicates that customs aren't cleared yet, there are still duties (if any) owed to US Customs, and that you're moving the cargo from the terminal to a warehouse that's registered with US Customs so that they know where the stuff is. Do note that transfers of cargo from an airport to a bonded warehouse to avoid storage fees aren't the only situation where bonded cargo comes into play. Sometimes, a flight can terminate at one airport, but the master bill of lading says that the final port of transit is somewhere else (i.e. flight terminates at JFK, but must be trucked up to BOS). In this case, the JFK terminal would issue an in-bond to a bonded trucker, and they'll truck that shipment up to the appropriate terminal at Logan Airport. This often happens in the case of dangerous goods shipments, but there are other cases where bonded cargo comes into play.
, across-the-board shrinking margins in states you should be winning easily like Flordia. and Musk continued involvement in government is only energizing dems base more, while fewer republicans are participating. they still have the "we've already won" mentality while Dems continue to mobilize more support.
