International Freight Forwarding Australia

Australia’s First Choice in International Freight Forwarding Services

As a major international freight forwarder in Australia, Stockwell International delivers customised solutions for specific supply chain requirements to businesses worldwide. 

Our comprehensive range of international and domestic air or sea freight services and freight logistics solutions are handled by a team of experts with over 50 years of experience dealing with global import and export complexities and finding cost-effective freight options.

Looking for an Australian freight forwarding company with a personalised touch? You’ve come to the right place.

How We Can Help

Sea Freight

Since 1971, we’ve been handling international ocean freight shipments for a range of industries. In that time, we have mastered the process and formed close relationships with major shipping lines providing us with the expertise and specialist network to excel in the sea freight logistics industry. We can help with both FCL and LCL shipping

Learn more about our Sea Freight service.

Air Freight

With a well-established network of major airlines and a wide-reaching network of offices, we are well equipped to offer competitive air freight forwarding rates with personalised service at optimum efficiency.

Learn more about our Air Freight service.

US/AU Trade Lane

There are many complexities that come with sending freight between the USA and Australia. When it comes to taxes, typical transit times, and shipping costs, it pays to have an expert help you deal with the process.

Find out more about Freight Forwarding Between the US and Australia.

Who We Work With

We frequently use trade lanes in South East Asia, New Zealand, North and South America, the Indian Sub-Continent, Europe, Africa and our most significant trade lane, North-East Asia.

We offer our freight forwarding service to a range of clients in a range of industries, most of which include:

The Stockwells Difference

Meet Your Freight Forwarder Team

Success Stories

Take a read through one of our freight forwarding success stories.

shipping containers stacked on top of each other being moved by a crane

Stockwells was approached by a large-scale renewables company that wanted more control and transparency on their project logistics. They were drowning in import paperwork, losing track of what was coming into the Australian port. This caused this particular client to spend too much time sorting out what was coming to the site and what was still in transit when that time should have been spent organising transport, if transport was required at all and on-site inductions, etc.

There was no visibility on shipping delays, customs clearance, terminal unpacking, and transport coordination to the site. Every supplier had a different agreement for the terms of trade, and it was unclear who oversaw which products to site and where to lay them down.

Stockwells has a deep understanding of how large, more complex projects work, and when dealing with renewable projects, many components are coming in from a multitude of different suppliers. 

They all funnel into the one site that may or may not be part or well established. It may have secluded or multiple laydown areas on unsealed roads with limited B-Double and truck access, and it may also have only one crane on-site to deal with all products entering the site. This adds another layer of coordination to transport and deliveries.

You have multiple freight providers who themselves work for the different companies under different shipping arrangements who are supplying their particular components to the site. All of this generally turns into a mess with long delays, futile trips and charges that were just not budgeted for, but all of which could have been avoided.

Projects are like Tetris puzzles with layers of information intertwined at different levels of the organisation and no one person has all the information required to make quick and efficient decisions. You need to understand the layers, the players and most importantly the site layout and limitations right from the beginning.

Stockwells offered this company full project administration and project coordination irrelevant of us organising the international freight for them or not. For the most part, we avoided much animosity on-site by taking the initiative and visiting the site directly, meeting with those organised with the task of accepting goods to the site. 

We ensured that the site knew who we were, whom we represented and which products we would be responsible for bringing to the site. Being mostly remote, we needed to have a good idea of limitations well in advance of deliveries. It is also good to have back up storage and crane facilities available as things change rapidly at remote sites. Rain is just never rain in the outback!

Ensuring we obtained all shipping details of the other products coming to site, including their arrival times to port and the product type, we were able to make sure our deliveries were not going to cause bottlenecks and issues, where detention allowed us some leeway.  On this particular project, Stockwells ended up with the task of coordinating all other cargo to the site due to our advanced administration techniques.   

Our administration to projects is considered advanced in that we have shipping arrival spreadsheets collated to include most other suppliers to site (if they are on hand to send to us to collate), they include full packing list delivery schedules down to what component is on what truck etc. Coordination in advance means we work out where each product is to be laid down, and we deliver according to an acceptable schedule for both the supplier of the goods, the transport companies involved and of course the renewable site itself.

We have received great feedback about our project coordination, and it has won us renewable contracts well into 2023. We understand what is required, the hard work and close contact needed and relish the challenges that the environment continually throws at us. We also coordinate all of the sea and air freight required on these projects and understand that everything is urgent, always.  

What Our Clients Say

Other Ways We Can Help

Customs Clearance

As Australia’s first choice customs freight broker, you can be sure your freight is in good hands. For over 50 years, we’ve been providing a reliable, efficient and personalised customs clearance service for a range of clients. 

Find out more about our Customs Clearance service.

Supply Chain Consulting

Good execution requires excellent planning. As global supply chains become more complex, risky and expensive, it is incredibly beneficial to consult the help of a supply chain professional. 

Find out more about our Supply Chain Consulting service.

Warehousing & Distribution

Streamline processes and reduce expenses with Stockwell’s integrated warehousing and logistics services. As a direct extension of your business, we can offer a range of warehousing and distribution services to optimise your supply chain.

Find out more about our Warehousing & Distribution service.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you have any questions about our freight forwarding services? Check out our FAQs.

Freight forwarding is the process of moving cargo (aka “freight”) between two points. This can be via air, sea, road or rail, or any combination. A freight forwarder will coordinate this process for you, from organising transport to fulfilling legal import/export requirements.

Learn more in our complete guide to freight forwarding.

Full container load (FCL) shipments is a shipping option where a container is used exclusively for one company’s cargo. This is in contrast to LCL shipments, where multiple cargo shipments from different parties share the same container.

Freight forwarding can be broken down into six main steps:

  1. Export transport: transporting goods from their origin
  2. Export customs clearance: obtaining clearance for the goods to leave their country of origin
  3. Origin handling: inspecting the goods against written documentation to make sure they are satisfactory and comply with what was expected
  4. Import customs clearance: organising customs paperwork so that goods can be imported to their destination
  5. Destination handling: unloading goods, moving them to warehouse in preparation for transportation to final destination
  6. Import haulage: transporting goods from warehouse to their final destination

A freight forwarder can organise the entire process of moving freight between countries (freight management), from looking after paperwork, to organising customs clearance and cargo insurance.

Not sure how to choose the right freight forwarder? It’s a crucial decision for your business, so you need to make sure you’re choosing one that can meet your needs.

Things to consider include: 

  • Are they licensed for ocean and air freight? 
  • How long have they been in business? Do they experience organising freight from your cargo’s country of origin? 
  • Can they provide a full-service port-to-door solution? Especially if you don’t have much experience with freight forwarding, finding a company who can take care of every step from start to finish can be a great help. 
  • Are they transparent about their pricing? Make sure they will answer your questions about insurance, document preparation and other costs.

Terms of trade (or trade terms) determine who holds the tasks, costs and risks associated with transporting and delivering goods between countries, and at what points in time. 

Incoterms are universal trade terms published by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC.) They consist of three-letter codes that are intended to clearly communicate the tasks, costs and risks associated with the transportation and delivery of goods in an international transaction. They describe how responsibility is allocated between the seller and the buyer for different parts of the transaction.

Depending on shipping terms, when an order is placed with your supplier, our local agent will make contact to arrange collection and clearance.

We can then provide a shipping schedule to suit you, including:

  • Tracking your cargo throughout the duration of the shipment;
  • Pre-clearing before arrival;
  • Arranging collection from the port/airport; and
  • Booking and Scheduling  the final delivery to Door.

Choose the experts in international shipping and freight forwarding