Freight forwarders in Detroit
Providers serving Detroit, United States. An independent listing for packers, growers and traders.
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.
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.
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
Can a freight forwarder handle customs clearance as well as the shipping itself?
Most freight forwarders offer customs clearance alongside transport, either with their own licensed brokers or through a partner they work with regularly. Confirm which applies before booking, since it affects who you deal with if a customs query comes up. Ask for recent examples of clearance handled for the same trade lane and cargo type, and check whether the quoted service already includes it or is a separate add-on.
What is the difference between a freight forwarder and a shipping line?
A shipping line owns or operates the vessels that physically carry cargo. A freight forwarder does not own transport capacity; instead they book space with carriers, arrange the surrounding legs such as trucking and documentation, and manage the shipment on your behalf. Most exporters and importers deal with a freight forwarder rather than a shipping line directly, because the forwarder coordinates the full door to door journey.
Do I need a separate customs broker if I use a freight forwarder?
Not usually. Most freight forwarders either hold their own customs licence or work with a broker as a standard part of their service, so a separate arrangement is rarely necessary. It is still worth asking directly rather than assuming, since the answer determines who is accountable for clearance paperwork and who you contact if a shipment is held at the border.
Why does a provider without a badge marking it as based in Detroit still appear on this list?
Listings on this page are matched by where a provider actually operates, not only by registered address. Some providers cover Detroit from a nearby base, run scheduled routes through it, or serve it as part of a wider territory in the United States. The absence of a city badge simply means their presence there is regional rather than a dedicated local office, so they remain a genuine option worth contacting for work in Detroit.
How does this Detroit page relate to the country page for the United States above it?
The country page for the United States gathers every provider working anywhere within it, across every category, while this page narrows that same pool down to Detroit specifically. Think of it as a filtered view rather than a separate dataset. If a search here comes up thin, the country page is the right next stop, since it will surface providers whose coverage reaches Detroit without being centred on it.
What should I do if the provider I need is not listed in Detroit yet?
Start with the country page for the United States, since a provider covering Detroit without a dedicated local presence may be listed there rather than here. If nothing suitable turns up, check neighbouring city pages, as providers often serve overlapping areas. You are also welcome to point us to a provider you know operates in Detroit so it can be reviewed and added for others searching the same route.
How does a provider get listed for Detroit?
Providers are added after their operations in or around Detroit are checked against publicly available information, such as their own website, registration details, or other verifiable records confirming the work they do in the United States. This keeps the list something buyers can rely on rather than a self-reported directory. A provider already known to serve Detroit that is missing here can be flagged for review and added once that basis is confirmed.
Detroit as one link in a longer chain
A shipment rarely begins and ends in Detroit; more often the location is where one stage of the journey happens, collection, consolidation, customs formalities, or handover to the next leg, before the cargo moves on toward its eventual destination elsewhere. A freight forwarder working in Detroit is therefore usually coordinating with whatever comes immediately before and after, not running an isolated, self-contained job that starts and finishes within the same set of walls.
This matters because the stages either side rarely belong to the same provider by default. Inland transport bringing cargo to Detroit, onward carriage away from it, and the customs or documentation steps that bridge the two are sometimes handled by the same forwarder end to end and sometimes split across separate arrangements that then have to be synchronised carefully by whoever is coordinating the move. Knowing in advance which of these pieces a given provider actually covers, and which it expects you or someone else to arrange separately, avoids a gap opening up at the join between two stages nobody quite owns.
The practical question worth asking is not just what happens in Detroit but what has to happen immediately before it arrives and immediately after it leaves, and who is responsible for each of those neighbouring steps once the cargo is in motion. A provider that can describe this clearly, rather than treating Detroit as a standalone task disconnected from everything around it, is usually one that has done the coordination before and knows where the handover points actually sit and where they tend to cause trouble. Where a provider cannot answer that question at all, it is worth assuming the neighbouring stages are entirely your responsibility to arrange, rather than discovering that gap once the cargo is already partway through the chain and difficult to redirect without cost or delay. Arranging the missing pieces separately, with their own confirmed timing, is preferable to hoping they resolve themselves once the shipment is already moving and nobody is left holding the piece nobody arranged.
Working out the routing for shipments from Detroit
Before booking anything out of Detroit, work out which gateway the cargo will actually move through, because that is not something to guess at from the city name alone, and it is not something a directory listing can settle for you either. The routing depends on the commodity, the destination, the volume, and the schedules running at the time, and it can differ between two shipments leaving Detroit in the same month. Air and sea are both worth putting on the table rather than assuming one applies by default: a consignment that suits a scheduled sea service in one period might move faster or more reliably by air in another, particularly for smaller volumes or tighter deadlines, and the right answer is specific to the shipment rather than to Detroit in general.
The way to establish this is to ask the freight forwarder directly, and to expect a specific answer rather than a general one. Ask which gateway, or gateways, they would actually route a shipment like yours through from Detroit, and why that one over any alternative. Ask what the onward leg from Detroit to that gateway looks like in practice, who arranges it, and where their arrangement ends, since a provider may be well placed to handle one part of the journey and reliant on a separate party for another. Ask, too, what changes if your volume, timing, or destination shifts, because a routing that makes sense for one shipment out of Detroit will not automatically hold for the next. A freight forwarder who can walk through these choices with you, and explain the reasoning rather than naming a single fixed answer, is the one worth working with regardless of what the map around Detroit happens to look like.
Working with a shorter local list
One listed provider names Detroit as a place they operate, and the remaining providers on this page cover it from elsewhere in the United States. That is simply what Fernable has recorded so far for this location, not a comment on how well the city itself is served: coverage gets published as it is verified, and a shorter local list reflects the state of that record rather than a judgement about the market. Work with what is actually in front of you rather than reading anything further into the shape of the list, and treat the choice as a practical one to work through rather than a compromise to accept.
With the one local provider, confirm the same things you would confirm anywhere: what they actually do on the ground in Detroit, whether that is a full local operation or a smaller presence supported from a larger office, and how that shapes response time and who you deal with day to day. With a provider based elsewhere in the United States, the question is whether covering Detroit from another location is genuinely equivalent for your shipment, and that depends on specifics rather than distance on a map: how often they already move cargo out of Detroit, what their arrangement looks like for the leg between Detroit and wherever they are based, and how quickly someone can be on site if something needs attention in person. Ask both the same direct questions: recent shipments moved out of Detroit, how a problem gets escalated, and who is accountable if something goes wrong. A provider covering Detroit from elsewhere in the United States that answers these plainly can be just as reliable a choice as the one already listed as local, and the right one is whichever answers with specifics rather than reassurance.
Deciding whether to use one provider or split the work
Not every requirement suits a single freight forwarder end to end, and assuming it does can leave gaps that only surface once cargo is already moving and harder to fix. Before committing to one provider for the whole job, it is worth working out which parts of the requirement are actually within its normal operating scope and which it would be subcontracting or coordinating on your behalf without necessarily saying so directly at the quoting stage.
A useful test is to ask the provider to describe, unprompted, how it would cover each stage of the requirement rather than simply confirming that it can handle all of it. A provider genuinely equipped to handle the whole scope will describe its own resources and named partners without hesitation or vagueness. One stretching to cover ground outside its usual work tends to answer in generalities, and that vagueness is itself useful information before volume is committed rather than after the fact.
Splitting the work across more than one provider is not a compromise, it can be the more reliable choice when no single provider has genuine strength across every stage the requirement touches. The trade-off is coordination: more handover points to manage and more parties to keep aligned on timing and expectations. Whichever way the decision goes, it should follow from an honest look at where each provider's actual capability ends, not from convenience or from whichever quote happened to arrive first in the inbox. Revisiting that judgement periodically matters too, since a provider's genuine scope can grow or narrow over time as its own resources and partnerships change, so a split that made sense a year ago is worth checking again rather than left to run on assumption indefinitely, especially once volumes or requirements have shifted noticeably from what they were at the start.
How service providers are distributed across the United States
Scale is the defining fact of trade-services geography in the United States, and it means comparisons between cities have to account for genuinely different regional systems rather than one national pattern. Coastal gateway cities on the east, west, and Gulf coasts each anchor their own cluster of forwarders, warehousing, and customs expertise oriented toward the ocean and air trade passing through them, while a separate set of inland hubs has grown up around rail and trucking networks that move goods across the interior. A provider in Detroit is typically embedded in one of these regional systems, and that system, more than the city itself, shapes what kind of work it is set up to do well.
Because the country is so large, reach is inherently more limited relative to overall distance than in a smaller market: a provider serving a metropolitan area efficiently may still be several days' transit from a coast on the other side of the country. This makes the choice of gateway, and the corridor connecting a given city to it, a bigger factor in comparing locations than it would be elsewhere. Two cities of similar size can differ substantially depending on which coast, border, or rail corridor they are oriented toward.
For someone comparing two American cities, it is worth asking which gateway a provider's business is actually built around, since a location's position on a map understates how specialised its trade infrastructure can be. A city with strong rail and trucking links inland may be extremely well served for domestic distribution while having comparatively thinner direct expertise in ocean freight, and the reverse holds for many port cities. Matching the corridor to the trade lane matters more than matching the city to a rough sense of the country's size.