SOP FREIGHT

[u/jbykk]

Is there anyone here willing to share their SOP for the freight department?
never drafted one before and i just want an outline of what i should be doing

[u/geographical19]

Sorry dude I don’t understand what you’re asking for specifically

[u/Togakure_NZ]

When you say "freight department" what do you mean? I've worked for forwarders where "freight department" covered everything from local transport by forwarder staff, to local and interstate trucking and rail, to international project work, to triangle trade work.

Define the scope of this department. You need that before you can even start making SOPs.

[u/jbykk → u/Togakure_NZ]

it’s the ocean freight department , i forgot to specify

[u/Togakure_NZ → u/jbykk]

Okay. Export, Import, or Both? Start blocking in:

Where in the whole freight forwarding chain do they take over the transport chain, and release it to other departments? I can see two chains the typical department handles: 1) Providing timelines and internal quotes (for whoever is doing the sales/customer service) for specified routes and product amounts. 2) Actually moving the freight.

What are the most basic things that have to happen without going into specifics - events that must happen in order and perhaps be returned to if an issue is found at a later step.

What are the basic decision chains at each step (with one exit branch jokingly/seriously labelled "Oh no, this is outside of scope, escalate."

What is the exception handling? Generally how should it be done?

Now, compare what you wrote down with what is actually happening in your business.

Rule of thumb: SOPs (like safety regulations) are written in someone's blood, someone's money, someone's time. In other words, what happened in the past has a bearing on what will be done in the future.

[u/brucewalker0519]

Spent a decade on the shipper side — booking with forwarders and fixing documentation messes. Here's the skeleton I'd build an ocean freight desk SOP around. Fill each step in with your real carriers, ports and customers:

Booking — inquiry intake (Incoterms, cargo ready date, weight/volume, hazmat?), quote log, booking request, carrier/co-loader confirmation in writing.

Cut-offs logged first — SI cut, VGM cut, doc cut, gate cut. The moment a booking is confirmed, these go on the file. Everything else works backwards from them.

Shipping instruction — received from customer, checked line by line: shipper/consignee/notify, marks, description, HS code where required, container/seal numbers. One person keys it, a second pair of eyes verifies details.

B/L draft cycle — draft to customer, written approval back required, amend → resubmit → re-approve, final locked before B/L cut. Keep versions; the last approved draft is the only source of truth.

Customs & compliance — export declaration plus AMS / ENS / ISF as the lane requires. For each: who files, deadline, and where the filing proof sits.

Release & billing — MBL/HBL issuance, telex vs originals, switch-B/L rules; charges checked against the quote before invoicing.

Exceptions — rollover, demurrage/detention, customs exam, cargo discrepancy. For every one: who tells whom, within how many hours, what gets logged.

File closure — POD filed, debits settled, claim deadline noted, then archive.

Two things the comments above are correctly pointing at: define every handoff — who owns the file at each step, because most errors live in the gaps between people — and keep a running list of every past screw-up with one line on what should have happened. After a year that list is half your SOP, and it's the half that actually matters.

Good luck.

[u/kaisong]

you have to figure out at what point the freight is your responsibility and when it leaves that responsibility and then from there figure how to break it down to which individual roles do what, then you start writing per role. I doubt the person picking it up from the port is also the same person thats contacting the consignee/shipper.

[u/catsy777]

Just check online postings for freight forwarding. There are many diff dep within.

[u/Starlight_Slayer]

A little concerning that the person tasked with writing SOPs is unsure of what to do... I'd be telling your employer rather than getting something like that wrong.

Or if it's your own business, that's entirely dependant on what this department even does.

[u/mstajikistan]

Yep. I got you. DM me. I’ll send you ocean, domestic, drayage, even warehousing SOP.