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Foreign Printing and International Freight

How to avoid to avoid hidden shipping charges,
simplify the process, and save time

By Susie Scally, Vice President, Sales, Bookshippers Worldwide

Bookshippers is a sponsor of the 2005 Production Managers Meeting. After attending the meeting, Bookshippers VP Susie Scally recognized a widespread misunderstandng of forign shipping terms and what they can mean to a press's bottomline. She offered to draft an informational piece on shipping terms for AAUP members, explaining the differences between the most common shipping terms used by the book industry. Bookshippers has offered to conduct a "freight audit" for any interested AAUP member. Please contact Susie Scally at Susie.Scally@BSW-US.com to arrange a freight audit or to learn more.

Many university presses are using foreign printers to produce four-color books with a higher quality at a lower cost then they could achieve in the United States.

Production departments have a great burden of responsibility placed upon them to deliver a first-rate book, at a reasonable cost, on time. On the back end of this process is the foreign shipping. Foreign freight tends to be the last thing that a production department wants to deal with.  It can be mysterious, frustrating, and time-consuming. However, a familiarity with basic International Commercial Terms ("Incoterms") can help presses save money on this final element of foreign printing. What follows is a brief introduction to two of the most common Incoterms and the methods presses might choose to lessen freight expenses.

When a printer volunteers to make the shipping arrangements, they often add an estimated shipping cost to the price of the book.  The International Commercial Term assigned to this is generally CIF (Cost, Insurance, Freight).  When shipping via CIF terms, the publisher loses control of movement of the shipment—including port of entry and speed—and can often be exposed to “hidden” or high landed-costs.  There are all kinds of unspecified fees which can appear on the brokerage invoice, including: Terminal Handling, Courier, Postage, Documentation, Single Entry Bond Fees, Loading, Inland Trucking (from an unspecified port of entry). These fees can add up to what the entire bill should have been from port of loading to your receiving warehouse.

Foreign freight can be made much more simple and the costs reduced, if the terms of the sale from the printer to the press are converted to FOB (Free On Board).  A press can appoint a reputable freight forwarder (that will also act as a U.S. Customs Broker) that is familiar with the publishing industry. The only exceptions to an FOB price quote should be: MPF(Merchandise Processing Fee), HMF (Harbor Maintenance Fee), duty (if applicable) and any U.S. Customs exam charges. Insurance can be obtained through the press or university’s policy providers or through the freight forwarder. Fuel and Security charges can fluctuate due to fuel costs, seasonal volumes or in times of conflict or war, something which should be kept in mind when projecting costs.

After providing purchase order information to a freight forwarder, a production department should expect that forwarder arrange timely bookings on vessels that will meet their delivery needs.  The production department should expect the forwarder to provide them with complete tracking and order status information.  There should be no scrambling, searching, or pleading with an agent to determine the whereabouts of your books.

These base-line expectations when working with a freight forwarder on FOB terms can alone make the final step of foreign printing—getting the books in your hands—a more efficient, less stressful process. It's the cost savings that can result that may be the greater relief, however.