In international shipping, something might eventually go wrong. A vessel misses its window, a container sits in customs, a crate arrives damaged. When cargo passes through carriers, ports, terminals and customs authorities on two or more continents, the real question is not whether a problem will happen, but how it is handled when it does.
What happens next depends on three things: what went wrong, who had the cargo at the time, and what protection was in place before it left.
Most problems fall into three categories
Delays are by far the most common. Port congestion, weather, labour disruptions and missed connections are often outside anyone’s control, and carriers’ terms rarely compensate for them. What you can control is how early you know and how quickly the plan adjusts.
Customs holds usually come down to paperwork: a missing document, an invoice that doesn’t match the packing list, a classification question. They are avoidable most of the time, and every day of delay adds storage costs.
Damage or loss is less frequent but the most costly, and it is where questions of responsibility come in.
Who is responsible when cargo is damaged?
Responsibility generally follows custody: the carrier that had the cargo when the damage occurred is the one a claim is made against. But carrier liability is capped by international conventions, the Hague-Visby Rules by sea and the Montreal Convention by air, and it is calculated per kilogram or per package, not on the value of the goods. For industrial equipment, that limit is often a small fraction of what the cargo is worth.
This is why cargo insurance that covers the full value, from origin to destination, is the real protection. It is also worth checking the deductible on a corporate policy: if it is higher than the value of the shipment, the policy won’t pay.
What to do when something goes wrong
Act quickly and keep a record. Note any damage on the delivery receipt before signing, take photos, keep the packaging, and notify your forwarder and your insurer the same day. Deadlines are short: written notice can be due within three days of delivery by sea when damage isn’t visible right away, and within 14 days by air.
How a problem is handled matters as much as the problem itself
Not every problem can be solved. A ship that has sailed cannot be called back. But clients rarely judge a logistics partner on whether something went wrong. They judge it on what happened next.
When something goes wrong, the first thing a client wants to see is ownership. They want to knowwe’ve assessed the problem and asked enough questions to get the full picture, and then they want to see us being proactive about solving it. Sometimes we can’t change the outcome, but showing that you’re actively working on it, and naming exactly what you’re doing, is sometimes more than enough, even when the outcome isn’t what we hoped for.
— Alexandre Van Gent, VP Global Business Development, Falcon International
The standard should be simple: a shipper should hear about a problem from their forwarder first, not from their supplier, along with what is being done about it.
Our approach
At Falcon International, we see incident management as part of the service, not an exception to it. Our approach is to take ownership, give clients the full picture and lay out practical options. If you are planning an international shipment, our team is happy to talk through the risks and the protection your cargo needs before it leaves.
About Falcon International
Falcon International is a freight forwarder headquartered in Pointe-Claire, Quebec, in Greater Montreal. The company manages international import and export shipments door to door by ocean and air, including project cargo and oversize equipment, with a network of partners abroad. All transactions are conducted under CIFFA Standard Trading Conditions.