How to Prepare Your Supply Chain for Lunar New Year 2027
Lunar New Year is the most predictable disruption in global trade, and it still catches importers off guard every year. In 2027 it arrives early. The holiday falls on Saturday, February 6, 2027, 11 days earlier than in 2026. For businesses that source from China or elsewhere in Asia, that shift moves every planning deadline […]
What Is an ISF (Importer Security Filing) and When Is It Due
If you import goods into the United States by ocean, an Importer Security Filing is one of the first requirements your shipment has to clear, and it happens before your cargo even leaves the foreign port. The ISF is simple in concept but strict in practice. Miss the deadline or submit inaccurate information, and you […]
USMCA Compliance in 2026: What Qualifies and What Changed
Last updated November 2026. This page was rewritten after the July 1 joint review, the July 20 Section 338 proclamations, and the August 22 start of Section 338 duties. Earlier versions predicted the agreement would be extended. It wasn’t. On July 1, 2026, the United States declined to renew the USMCA in its current form. […]
What Is Domestic Freight Shipping and When Do You Need It
International freight gets most of the attention in global trade, but nearly every shipment depends on a domestic leg to reach its final destination. Cargo that arrives at a U.S. port still has to get to a warehouse, a factory, or a customer. Exports have to reach the port before they can leave. Understanding how […]
USMCA Certificate of Origin: What It Is and How to Complete One
If you import goods from Canada or Mexico, or export to either, the USMCA certificate of origin is what allows qualifying goods to cross duty-free or at a reduced rate. It’s also one of the most misunderstood documents in North American trade, largely because the thing most people go looking for doesn’t exist. There is […]
Carrier Liability vs. Marine Cargo Insurance
When a shipment is lost or damaged, many shippers expect the carrier to pay for it. The carrier usually does owe something. But that amount is set by law, capped well below the value of most commercial cargo, and can drop to zero under a long list of defenses. Marine cargo insurance works on a […]
What Is a Container Freight Station (CFS)?
If you ship less-than-container-load freight, your cargo spends part of its journey at a container freight station, even if you never see the building. A container freight station, or CFS, is a warehouse facility where smaller shipments from different companies are combined into full containers before an ocean voyage, and separated back out again after […]
What Is Blind Shipping and How Does It Work
In freight, blind shipping is a delivery arrangement where the identity of the shipper, the receiver, or both is deliberately kept off the shipping documents so that one party cannot see who the other is. It sounds like a technicality, but for distributors and resellers it protects something valuable: the supplier relationships their business depends […]
What Is a Freight Forwarder and What Do They Actually Do
Anyone who ships goods internationally runs into the term freight forwarder quickly, but what a forwarder actually does is often unclear. Are they a carrier? A broker? A shipping company? The short answer is that a freight forwarder is the party that organizes and coordinates the movement of your goods from origin to destination, without […]
What Is Freight Class and How Does It Affect Your LTL Rate
If you ship freight by less than truckload, one number does more to determine your cost than almost anything else: your freight class. It decides whether the same pallet moving between the same two cities costs a little or a lot, and getting it wrong can mean reclassification fees on top of a higher base […]