Shipment A: sea freight
Eleven crates, 4.2 cubic metres, 1,850 kg gross. Port to port 28 days, plus 9 days for customs and inland delivery. Total door to door: 37 days. Freight cost was about 1.9 percent of the order value.
Shipment B: air freight
The same order, split into eight crates to fit the aircraft. Chargeable weight 2,600 kg because of volumetric rules. Door to door 7 days. Freight cost was about 9.4 percent of the order value.
The comparison
| Item | Sea | Air |
|---|---|---|
| Transit | 37 days | 7 days |
| Freight % | 1.9% | 9.4% |
| Crating | Flight cases, returnable | Lighter cartons, one-way |
| Damage risk | Higher (handling) | Lower (fewer touches) |
| Working capital | Locked 37 days | Locked 7 days |
When air is worth it
A project with a fixed opening date. A replacement shipment after a damaged sea delivery. A small order where the freight percentage is small in absolute terms. And a client who is paying for the equipment from a facility with a deadline.
When sea is the right call
Most orders, most of the time. 7.5 percent of order value is real money. On a 60,000 dollar order that is 4,500 dollars, which buys a lot of spare parts. Sea freight also lets you ship a full set of flight cases as part of the order, which is useful if the client will move the wall.
The thing that catches people
Volumetric weight. Air freight charges by volume divided by 6,000 in most cases. LED cabinets are light and bulky, so the chargeable weight is often 40 percent higher than actual. Ask the forwarder for the volumetric calculation before you decide.
What we do by default
Sea for the main order, air for spares and for anything the client needs within ten days. That split usually costs less than 3 percent of order value and removes the schedule risk on critical parts.