Freight forwarders in North America
Freight forwarders serving growers, packers and exporters in North America, including global operators active in the region.
Air General is a family-owned air and ocean cargo ground-handling company operating a cargo warehouse at Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) for airlines and forwarders, handling import, export, and transfer freight including perishables in temperature-managed rooms.
A freight forwarder with a Seattle warehouse facility offering ocean, air, and intermodal freight forwarding, consolidation, and transloading services.
AIT Worldwide Logistics is a freight forwarder headquartered in Itasca, Illinois, offering ocean freight, air freight, and customs clearance services alongside a dedicated cold chain logistics service for temperature-controlled shipments, including produce.
NVOCC-licensed shipping company based in Oakland offering ocean freight, drayage, transloading and customs clearance for import/export cargo moving through the Port of Oakland.
Alliance Cargo Express is an air freight forwarder based near JFK Airport handling perishable cargo, export documentation, and temperature-sensitive shipments alongside general air freight and charter services.
Family-owned NVOCC based in Long Beach with over 50 years in the industry, handling FCL/LCL ocean freight, air freight, and over-dimensional/project cargo for export and import.
Argents Express Group operates a warehouse and logistics facility in Ladson, South Carolina, near Charleston, providing licensed customs brokerage and freight forwarding services.
C.H. Robinson is a US-headquartered global logistics provider offering ocean, air, customs brokerage, temperature-controlled and project logistics services with regional Asia-Pacific headquarters in Shanghai, Singapore and Mumbai.
Licensed Houston customhouse broker and international freight forwarder handling import/export customs clearance for food and beverage, machinery, and oil and gas cargo.
cargo-partner is an Austria-headquartered info-logistics provider and Nippon Express Group member offering air, sea and land freight, warehousing and cold-chain transport for perishables, with its Asia-Pacific regional head office in Hong Kong.
CEVA Logistics, a CMA CGM company headquartered in France, provides air and ocean freight forwarding, customs brokerage, and dedicated reefer and air-perishables cold chain services across around 170 countries.
Circle Logistics runs a freight brokerage office in Chicago's North Branch neighborhood, arranging temperature-controlled truckload capacity across the US, Canada and Mexico alongside dry van, flatbed and expedited freight.
Operates a Seattle refrigerated-warehousing facility with on-site USDA inspection, handling seafood and produce with air freight consolidation to Honolulu and Anchorage.
Cool Cargo UK is a Hounslow-based freight forwarder that provides temperature-controlled air freight and reefer sea freight for perishable and pharmaceutical goods.
Crowe Logistics is a Chicago-based freight brokerage and 3PL arranging truckload, intermodal, and ocean drayage transportation, with reefer and dry container capacity for temperature-controlled and perishable freight.
D.J. Powers, established in 1930 and headquartered in Savannah, is one of Georgia's oldest freight forwarders and customs brokerages, providing ocean and air freight forwarding.
Dimerco Express Group is a Taiwan-based, Asia-Pacific-focused freight forwarder providing air and ocean freight, customs brokerage, and contract logistics across China, India and ASEAN.
DSV is a Denmark-based global transport and logistics provider offering sea freight, air freight, customs, and project logistics across more than 90 countries.
Dupuy Storage operates a North Charleston facility with refrigerated and dry food-grade warehouse space, offering air, ocean, and land freight forwarding with customs documentation handling.
Savannah office of EMO Trans, a global logistics and supply chain management company arranging customized international ocean and air freight transportation.
Europa Worldwide Group is a UK freight and logistics company that provides ocean freight, air freight, customs clearance and project cargo forwarding from its head office in Dartford, Kent.
Expeditors International is a US-based logistics company providing air and ocean freight forwarding, customs brokerage, and project cargo through a global network in over 100 countries.
International freight forwarder based in downtown Long Beach since 1929, offering air freight, FCL/LCL ocean shipping, tracking, and vehicle export services.
Houston freight forwarder and customs broker with over 30 years of experience clearing FDA, DOT, and EPA regulated cargo, including perishables, wine, and alcohol.
Gateway Cargo is a Kent-based freight forwarder that provides ocean freight, air freight and customs clearance services from its head office in Strood, with an additional customs office at the port of London Gateway.
Green Worldwide Shipping is a freight forwarder headquartered in Decatur, Georgia, providing ocean and air freight forwarding, customs brokerage, and warehousing and distribution services, including handling of temperature-sensitive food and beverage cargo.
Freight forwarder headquartered at Port Newark/Elizabeth since 1947, offering container terminal access and handling of oversize and overweight cargo.
Hellmann Worldwide Logistics is a Germany-based freight forwarder operating in 62 countries with a dedicated perishable logistics arm offering temperature-controlled and reefer transport for food, flowers and edible oils.
Hemisphere Freight Services is a UK freight forwarder with a branch at Skelmersdale near the Port of Liverpool, offering ocean, air, road and project freight forwarding, customs clearance, and handling of reefer cargo.
K International Transport Co. is a Manhattan-based international freight forwarder handling ocean and air cargo, including LCL/FCL container shipments, alongside logistics consulting services.
Kerry Logistics (KLN Logistics Group) is a Hong Kong-headquartered, Asia-based global 3PL offering international air, ocean, road and rail freight forwarding, customs brokerage, project logistics and cold chain services across 58 countries and territories.
King Ocean Services operates ocean freight and NVOCC services from Port Everglades, Florida to destinations across the Caribbean, Central America, and South America, offering refrigerated (reefer) container cargo, project cargo, and LCL/FCL service. Its U.S. entity, King Ocean Agency, Inc., is based in Sweetwater, Florida.
Kuehne+Nagel is a global freight forwarder offering sea and air logistics, customs, and dedicated cold chain and perishables services across close to 100 countries.
Lynden is a Seattle-headquartered transportation group whose operating companies include Alaska Marine Lines (barge/ocean freight) and Lynden Air Cargo (charter and scheduled air freight), and it provides seafood shipping and logistics support, including reefer cargo, between Alaska and the Lower 48.
Mainfreight is a New Zealand-headquartered logistics company providing air and sea freight forwarding, customs brokerage and dedicated perishable freight handling across a network of offices in 27 countries.
Nippon Express (NX Group) is a Japan-headquartered logistics company providing air and ocean freight forwarding, customs brokerage, perishable logistics and project logistics across more than 50 countries.
Norman Krieger, Inc. (Krieger Worldwide), headquartered in Long Beach, California, provides ocean freight, air freight and project cargo forwarding services in addition to its customs brokerage business, operating as a licensed freight broker under FMCSA MC-1505544-B.
Oceans Consolidators Inc. (trading as Overseas Freight Solutions) is a Miami international freight forwarder and its own licensed customs house broker, handling U.S. exports/imports, foreign-to-foreign moves and project cargo from a 40,000 sq ft Miami warehouse.
OIA Global is a Portland, Oregon-headquartered freight forwarder and supply chain logistics company offering ocean, air, and customs brokerage services; it traces its roots to 1988 as an air freight exporter of Pacific Northwest perishables under the name Oregon International Air Freight.
Platton is a Seattle-based freight forwarder managing ocean and air import supply chains from Asia and Europe, including customs clearance, drayage, and warehousing.
Houston-based freight forwarder and customs broker operating since 1974, offering ocean and air freight, cross-border shipping, project cargo logistics, and 3PL warehousing.
Rhenus Logistics is a Germany-headquartered logistics provider offering air and ocean freight forwarding, road transport, customs brokerage and project logistics across more than 70 countries.
Röhlig Logistics is a Germany-headquartered, owner-run international sea and air freight forwarder offering customs brokerage, project logistics and temperature-controlled/perishable cargo handling across more than 35 countries including Australia and New Zealand.
Seafrigo is a France-headquartered cold-chain logistics specialist providing temperature-controlled ocean freight, airfreight, customs and reefer-container services for perishable goods across offices on five continents.
Sinotrans is a China-based logistics group and major NVOCC offering sea and air freight forwarding, shipping agency, and multimodal logistics from Chinese ports worldwide.
Southern Intermodal Xpress (SIX) is a Gulf Coast intermodal drayage and depot-management company with terminals in Mobile, Alabama and New Orleans, Louisiana, offering regional and local import/export container drayage including refrigerated (reefer) container drayage.
An Oakland-headquartered customs brokerage and freight forwarding company offering LCL/FCL ocean freight, air freight, and import/export documentation services.
Texas International Freight is a Houston-based international shipping company offering ocean and air freight, customs brokerage, and export packing for heavy and specialized cargo, including agriculture-sector shipments.
Thunderbolt Global Logistics, LLC is a Baltimore, Maryland-based international freight forwarder, customs broker, and NVOCC specializing in ocean, air, and project cargo shipments, C-TPAT certified.
Trailer Bridge is a Jacksonville, Florida-based NVOCC and ocean freight carrier founded in 1991, providing containerized, breakbulk, and temperature-controlled (reefer) shipping between the U.S. mainland and Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
International freight forwarder headquartered at the Port of Newark, licensed for US trucking, air and ocean shipping, including containerized, Ro-Ro and specialized/oversize cargo.
Savannah-based international freight forwarding company operating since 1981, providing ocean freight forwarding and customs coordination for import/export shipments.
W.M. Stone is a Norfolk-based customs brokerage and freight forwarding company offering ocean, air and ground freight services alongside trade compliance support for Hampton Roads shippers.
Woodland Group is a UK-based freight forwarder that provides ocean freight, air freight, customs clearance and temperature-controlled reefer logistics for perishable goods from its office in Hayes, Middlesex.
Yusen Logistics is a Japan-headquartered freight forwarder offering air and ocean freight forwarding, customs house brokerage, and cold chain logistics with reefer container and chilled/frozen air options for perishables.
Licensed US customs broker and freight forwarder based in Boise, Idaho, arranging customs clearance and international ocean and air freight imports alongside domestic trucking.
FMC-licensed NVOCC freight forwarder arranging ocean container and RoRo shipping, air freight and export customs documentation through the Port of Tacoma, Washington.
Licensed US customs broker headquartered in Champlain, New York on the Canadian border, providing customs clearance for goods entering the United States along with road transport and air and ocean freight forwarding services.
Customs broker and freight forwarder founded in 1945, headquartered in Reno, Nevada, providing customs brokerage, warehousing and international freight forwarding across ocean and air modes as part of the Bender Group logistics network.
US customs broker operating at the Calexico, California border crossing with Mexicali since 1917, providing customs entry preparation, ocean freight brokerage and cross-border clearance for imports from Mexico.
Licensed U.S. customs broker and freight forwarder headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, offering international ocean and air freight forwarding, ground transportation, warehousing and distribution, and customs brokerage.
Freight forwarder and C-TPAT certified customs broker headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, providing import and export brokerage, ocean and air freight delivery, project cargo management, and warehousing and distribution services.
Vessel agency and freight forwarding provider headquartered on the Gulf Coast in Gonzales, Louisiana since 1987, offering ocean freight forwarding and documentation, customs brokerage, ship agency, warehousing, and project logistics across more than a dozen Gulf Coast ports including Mobile.
Licensed US customs broker and international freight forwarder in El Paso, Texas, operating a 50,000 square foot bonded warehouse for cross-border import and export logistics with Mexico.
CBP licensed customs broker and freight forwarder headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, offering ocean freight, air freight, intermodal transportation, domestic trucking, warehousing, and customs compliance services.
Freight forwarder based in Spokane, Washington and Kellogg, Idaho, arranging international air cargo, courier delivery and time-critical, temperature-sensitive and oversized shipments.
Freight forwarder and customs broker headquartered near Boston, Massachusetts, offering air freight, ocean freight, ground freight, customs brokerage and compliance services, with specialized temperature-controlled handling for perishable and pharmaceutical cargo.
Customs broker operating at the Nogales, Arizona port of entry since 1928, providing customs entry preparation, HTS classification, bonded warehousing and freight forwarding for importers moving goods from Mexico.
Licensed customs broker and international freight forwarder headquartered in Mobile, Alabama with over 130 years in the international shipping industry, handling ocean and air freight, project cargo, ship agency, and customs brokerage for general and hazardous cargo.
U.S. Customs broker and international freight forwarder headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, providing air freight, full and partial container ocean freight, and cross border trucking to Mexico and Canada.
Customs broker and freight forwarder founded in 1915 and headquartered in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, offering air and ocean freight forwarding, export packaging, warehousing, distribution, and project cargo handling.
Customs house broker and international freight forwarder headquartered in Mobile, Alabama, operating since 1923 and offering ocean and air freight forwarding, cargo insurance, drayage, and warehousing.
Family owned U.S. customhouse brokerage and international freight forwarder headquartered in Brownsville, Texas since 1948, handling import and export clearance for shipments crossing the Texas-Mexico border in the Laredo customs district.
Freight and logistics company founded as a licensed US customs broker in 1978, headquartered near Detroit in Romulus, Michigan, offering customs brokerage, ocean and air freight forwarding, bonded warehousing, and heavy lift services.
Full-service licensed NVOCC and freight forwarding company headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, providing ocean freight, air freight, land transportation, warehousing, chemical and bulk logistics, and customs house brokerage.
Family-owned customs broker founded in 1982 in Nogales, Arizona, providing customs entry preparation, bonded warehousing and border clearance for imports crossing the Nogales-Mariposa and Nogales-DeConcini ports of entry from Mexico.
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Common questions
Do freight forwarders in North America handle both import and export shipments?
Most freight forwarders in North America handle both directions, but many have a stronger practical focus on whichever flow is more common for that market. It is worth asking directly which side of the business a given provider spends more of their time on, since day-to-day experience with export documentation differs from experience managing inbound customs clearance and delivery.
What should I check before choosing a freight forwarder in North America?
Confirm which ports, airports, or border crossings the forwarder actually operates through in North America, and whether their network covers the specific mode, ocean, air, or road, that the shipment needs. It also helps to ask about their experience with the particular goods involved, since handling requirements can vary significantly by cargo type.
Can a freight forwarder in North America arrange the full door-to-door journey?
Many freight forwarders in North America can arrange collection or delivery alongside the main international leg, coordinating trucking, customs clearance, and warehousing as needed. Coverage varies by provider, so it is worth confirming upfront whether they manage the full door-to-door route themselves or hand off part of the journey to a separate local partner.
How do I check whether a provider listed for North America is actually reliable?
Look for a working address and contact details, and ask for references from businesses that have shipped through North America recently rather than relying on a listing alone. Confirm the specific service you need, storage, freight forwarding, or customs handling, since a general logistics listing does not always mean deep capability in the one service that matters to your shipment. A provider willing to explain what happens when something goes wrong is a stronger signal than any credential.
Should I use a local provider in North America or an international one with a presence there?
It depends on what matters more for your shipment. A local provider in North America usually has deeper knowledge of ground conditions, relationships, and paperwork specific to that market, while an international provider offers a single point of contact and consistent processes if your goods also move through other countries. Many exporters combine the two: a local provider for physical handling in North America, and a wider forwarder to manage the rest of the route.
What should I ask a provider in North America before committing to work with them?
Ask what happens to your goods at each handover point, who is responsible if something is delayed or damaged, and what documentation they produce and when. Ask for a quote that breaks out individual charges rather than one bundled figure, so you can see what you are paying for at each stage. It is also worth asking directly how they have handled a shipment that ran into difficulty in North America, since that answer tells you more than a general pitch.
Freight forwarders across the Americas
Freight forwarders serving North America operate across a hemisphere where road and rail connections between neighbouring countries sit alongside major ocean gateways, so the right provider depends heavily on whether the cargo is moving by sea, by air, or overland to a bordering market. Coastal access varies a great deal across the Americas, and inland locations often rely on a forwarder's trucking and rail partnerships to reach the nearest port rather than shipping directly, which adds a layer of coordination that a purely ocean-focused forwarder may not handle well.
Customs procedures and required documentation differ between countries in the Americas, and trade agreements covering parts of the hemisphere can affect tariff treatment and paperwork depending on origin and destination. A freight forwarder working in and out of North America will usually have direct experience with the specific border crossings, ports, or airports the cargo needs to pass through, and that experience is often more valuable than general regional coverage claims. Seasonal weather, from hurricane exposure on some coasts to winter conditions further from the equator, can also affect routing and transit reliability at different times of year.
Distances within the Americas are often long even for intra-regional trade, so transit time and the choice between air and ocean freight tend to matter more here than in more compact regions. Some freight forwarders in North America focus mainly on north-south trade lanes connecting to major economies elsewhere in the hemisphere, while others build their business around intercontinental lanes to Europe or Asia, and it is worth confirming which pattern matches the shipment before assuming broad capability.
How trade moves through North America
North America's food and agricultural trade runs on some of the most integrated cross-border logistics in the world, with the United States, Canada, and Mexico connected by dense road and rail networks that treat many agricultural supply chains as effectively continental rather than confined within national borders. A significant share of trade within the region moves overland rather than by sea, and produce, grain, and processed food products routinely cross one or more of the region's land borders as part of a single supply chain before reaching final processing, storage, or retail distribution. This overland integration is arguably the defining feature of the region's trade geography, and it means border crossing efficiency and customs coordination between the three countries matter as much as, or more than, port capacity for a great deal of the region's food trade.
Port infrastructure remains substantial on both coasts and the Gulf, handling major bulk grain, meat, and produce export volumes to markets outside the region, and these systems are generally mature, well documented, and used to meeting demanding international food safety and traceability standards. Inland, an extensive cold and ambient storage and distribution network supports both domestic movement and export preparation, with major agricultural regions typically well served by rail and trucking links to processing and export points. Seasonal patterns matter less as a structural feature here than in some other regions, since production spans a wide range of latitudes and climates across the three countries, allowing sourcing continuity across much of the year for many commodities if the right regional combination of origins is used.
The provider landscape includes large, well-capitalised logistics and cold-chain providers operating across all three countries, alongside a substantial base of regional and specialist operators focused on particular commodities, corridors, or border crossings. Customs brokerage is a mature, well-regulated specialism in its own right here, reflecting how much cross-border movement the region handles, and providers with strong customs brokerage capability at the specific land border relevant to a shipment are often more valuable than a larger generalist without that specific border experience. Regulatory frameworks in each country are well documented and consistently enforced, which gives sourcing across the region a degree of procedural predictability that is genuinely useful for planning.
Someone sourcing across the United States, Canada, and Mexico at once should pay particular attention to which land border a supply chain actually crosses and how many times, since multiple crossings each carry their own documentation and inspection requirements even within a broadly harmonised trading relationship. Regulatory standards for food safety, labelling, and phytosanitary matters differ in specifics between the three countries even where overall frameworks are aligned, so assuming full equivalence across borders can produce compliance gaps. Because so much of the region's trade is genuinely continental in structure, a provider's ability to coordinate a shipment's movement across more than one of the three countries, rather than handling only a single national leg, is a real point of differentiation worth asking about directly.
Working across North America as a sourcing area means treating the three countries as a connected logistics system with its own cross-border specialism, rather than as three separate national markets that happen to be adjacent, while still respecting the real regulatory distinctions that persist beneath that integration. It also rewards planning that takes advantage of the region's wide production range: knowing which growing areas cover which season lets a buyer sequence origins across the year rather than treating any one country as a year-round default.
Comparing freight forwarders in North America
Fernable lists a broad set of freight forwarders operating in North America, which makes the practical task selection rather than discovery. With that many providers to choose from, the differences worth weighing are structural rather than cosmetic. Which trade lanes into and out of North America does a forwarder handle as routine business, rather than the occasional one-off booking. Does it operate its own offices and agents along the route, or does it lean on subcontracted partners it does not directly control. How does it document customs clearance and compliance for the specific cargo type in question, and can it point to a concrete process rather than a general assurance. These are the factors that surface later as delays, unexpected costs, or clean execution, and they rarely show up clearly on a provider's own marketing pages.
Other differences look significant but carry little weight. A polished website, a long list of named partners, or broad claims of global reach say almost nothing about performance on a specific lane into North America. Coverage across ocean, air, road, and rail only matters if a provider actually runs the mode relevant to the shipment on a regular basis, not merely lists it among its services. The same goes for breadth of cargo type. Handling everything from standard container loads to project or oversized freight is only meaningful if the provider can describe, in concrete terms, how it has routed and documented that category of cargo before. Confidence without specifics is a weak signal, however well it is presented.
The most efficient way to compare a crowded field is to run the same short set of questions past a shortlist, rather than reading every profile end to end. Ask what happens when a shipment is delayed at a border or terminal in North America, and who takes ownership of resolving it. Ask what documentation the forwarder prepares directly versus what it expects the shipper to supply. Ask for a reference shipment on a comparable lane, not a general testimonial. Providers who answer with specifics, procedure, and consistency across the conversation are worth pursuing further, while vague reassurance, however confidently delivered, is the cue to move on to the next name on the list. Narrowing a large field does not require exhaustive due diligence on every provider listed: a short, consistent comparison built around lane experience, control over the route, and clarity under pressure separates real capability from adjacent capability far faster than reading marketing copy, and it keeps the decision anchored to what actually determines whether cargo moves through North America on time and intact.