Your growing business is planning to ship products internationally. What will you need to get that process started? These are three shipping essentials that you will need to get your products out there.
1. Shipping Containers
Shipping containers are essential for storing and transporting your products. They can be used for various transportation methods (truck, train or ship). If you’re hoping to get your products abroad, you will want to have these containers for long trips by sea.
Where can you get a shipping container? You can buy a used shipping container from Boxhub with a cargo-worthy grade. Cargo-worthy shipping containers meet all the requirements for transporting cargo, so your products will be safe and secure during travel.
Before you purchase a cargo-worthy shipping container, you should know that it needs to get a Convention for Safe Containers (CSC) plate before you can use it to ship your products. This is a simple problem to fix. How? You can have the container inspected by certified CSC inspectors. Once their inspection is complete, you’ll have CSC certification. Your container will be declared a “Shipper-Owned Container” (SOC), which means you’ll be free to use it for international shipping purposes.
2. Additional Certificates
A CSC plate is only one of the forms of certification you might need before shipping your products overseas. Some countries require that you have a Certification of Origin in their trade agreements. A Certification of Origin identifies the country where your goods originate from. The document will help the importing country levy the proper import tax and streamline the clearance process.
You may need certain certificates based on the products you’re transporting. If you happen to be transporting hazardous goods (for example, paints), you may need to have a Safety Data Sheet (SDS). In the past, a Safety Data Sheet was called a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS).
If you are shipping wood or natural materials, you may need a Fumigation Certificate. With fumigation, you can stop pests and vermin that infest natural materials from traveling overseas and causing issues with another country’s specific ecosystem. Without this certificate, your cargo may not be accepted at the port.
You can visit the official website of the International Trade Administration to see what other special documents you might need for your shipments.
3. Insurance
Another shipping essential that your business should look into is cargo insurance. Cargo insurance can offer coverage for damage or loss of your products throughout the shipment process, whether it’s sitting in a storage facility or it’s in the middle of traveling overseas. Cargo insurance is sometimes called marine insurance.
Marine insurance does not typically offer coverage when your products are damaged or lost during air or land transportation. In those cases, you will either need freight insurance or inland marine insurance for help.
You don’t want to skip a step like insurance when your products are on the line. You’ll want to have this safety net to fall back on when something goes wrong.
Shipping containers, certifications and insurance are all essentials that you’ll need to start shipping your products abroad. Look into these essentials now and help your business reach a brand-new audience.
