Six steps. The middle two are where shipments actually go wrong, so those are the ones we automate hardest.
Origin, destination, what it is, when it is ready. Parcel, pallet, groupage or a full container in the same form.
Every carrier running the lane, with price, transit, reliability and the document cut-off on the same card.
Commercial invoice, packing list and certificate of origin for a B2B shipment. We chase them against the cut-off clock rather than after it.
Truck to the factory gate in your slot, then into the terminal before it closes. Free waiting time is fixed and overruns are billed, so the slot is a real constraint rather than a suggestion.
Milestones as they happen: loaded, departed, at sea, arrived. Vessel position from AIS, milestones from the carrier.
Customs entry filed before arrival so the container does not sit accruing demurrage, then final delivery and proof of delivery.
Duties and import taxes, customs clearance, cargo insurance, and demurrage beyond the free days. Every quote lists them as excluded rather than burying them, because they are where an apparently cheap rate stops being cheap.
The carrier's liability is capped by international convention, and the caps are low: about 2 SDR per kilo by sea, 8.33 by road, 26 by air. Roughly 2 to 30 euro a kilo depending on the mode.
On a 200 kilo crate worth 40,000 euro, the sea cap returns a few hundred euro. That gap is exactly what cargo insurance exists to cover, which is why it is offered on every quote rather than hidden in a footnote.
Because your box shares a mainline vessel instead of needing a direct service. It costs two or three days and one extra handling, and handling is when things get lost. On a deadline, pay for direct.
Rough rule: above about 15 cubic metres a full 20ft container usually beats groupage on price, and always beats it on handling. Below that, LCL. Both are quoted side by side so you can see the crossover on your own lane.
Two weeks for ocean on a normal week, more into a peak. Booking late does not just cost more, it costs availability: when ships are full, a guaranteed slot matters more than the price you were willing to pay.