What is a Carrier?
Definition: Carrier
In airfreight logistics, the carrier is the one who actually takes your freight from A to B by plane. This means usually an airline that provides the plane that can take the shipment.
Carrier: A cargo plane or belly-freighter
The plane carrying goods can be a dedicated freight plane or a co-called belly-freighter. This is actually a passenger plane that takes freight as well in the cargo hold. This option is especially interesting when time is pressing, because passenger planes have a much higher flight frequency than freight planes.
What is the difference between the carrier and the forwarder?
Carrier and forwarder are not the same. Even though the carrier has organisational work to do concerning the transport from airport to airport, the forwarder has the superordinate control. He is responsible for the whole workflow and acts as an agent between the carrier, the airline in our case, and subsequent transport solutions.
The carrier only organizes the transportation by airplane, announces the shipment to the receiving forwarder and is responsible for the loading and unloading of the shipment.
Transportation of goods with an On Board Courier
On Board Couriers transport your shipment by passenger plane. As noted above, this is usually the fastest option and in emergency logistics and spare part logistics time is of highest importance. An On Board Courier accompanies your shipment in person from the pick-up to the delivery at the recipient. Because your shipment with an On Board Courier is not treated as freight but as baggage, you don’t need an Air Waybill (AWB).