Freight Forwarder

Logistics

An agent arranging transportation of goods including booking, documentation, and customs clearance.

Sources

1. FIATA — Who we are fiata.org accessed 23 September 2026

There is no licence to call yourself a freight forwarder in most of the world, and no body defines the occupation — but there is an international federation, and its self-description is the closest thing to an authoritative account of the trade. FIATA, the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations, describes itself as “a non-governmental, membership-based organisation” and “a reference source on international policies and regulations governing the freight forwarding and logistics industry”, working “to represent service providers who operate in trade logistics and supply chain management”. What makes it more than a trade body for this purpose is its documents: it promotes trade facilitation “through its FIATA documents and forms, digitalisation of key trade documents, annual congress and headquarters meeting, training and publications”. Those standard forms are what a forwarder is likely to contract on, so they matter more to a shipper than the federation does. Founded in Vienna in 1926, FIATA engages with the World Trade Organization and United Nations agencies on the industry’s behalf.

What this source can and cannot settle. A statute binds where its law governs, and a federation describes rather than regulates. Neither makes the term mean the same thing everywhere: another jurisdiction may define the instrument differently, and membership of a trade body is not a qualification. Read the law governing your contract, and the actual terms you are being offered.

Related terms

• Airway Bill
• Bill of Lading
• Customs House Agent
• Dangerous Goods
• Free On Board Vessel
• Full Container Load

From the AJG lexicon archive (July 2026).