What is Cargo?
Cargo, also known as freight, refers to goods or produce being transported from one place to another – by water, air or land. Originally, the term “cargo” referred to goods being loaded onboard a vessel. These days, however, cargo is used for all types of goods, including those carried by rail, van, truck, or intermodal container.
Though cargo means all goods onboard a transport vehicle, it does not include items such as personnel bags, goods in the storage, equipment or products to support the transport carried onboard. Cargo transport is mainly for commercial purpose for which an air waybill, bill of lading or other receipt is issued by the carrier.
What is Logistics?
Logistics includes but is not limited to cargo. Complete logistics may include two core modules, one is transportation management in logistics and the other is warehousing and distribution services and even auxiliary modules such as sorting, which perform functions such as storage, transportation, loading and unloading, packaging, and processing of materials between production and consumption.
What is the difference between cargo and logistics?
First, modern logistics services company must master advanced management technology, and communicate with relevant units based on information exchange and information processing technology and equipment; traditional cargo forwarders mainly rely on cargo equipment, such as warehouses and fleets. In cargo forwarding business, the source of the information mainly depends on the customers themselves.
Second, cargo forwarding services usually take the customer’s instructions as the starting point. In comparison, this type of service is passive; while the goal of logistics services is to continuously meet customer needs and help customers formulate business strategies. So it is proactive and plays a guiding role.
Third, modern logistics services do not necessarily engage in specific cargo work. Its main task is to provide customers with transportation management services by selling advanced cargo integrated management technology to relevant customers, focusing on the overall transportation link.
Fourth, cargo forwarders only participate in cargo-related activities, but modern logistics services may also provide customers with global ordering and supply services. Therefore, modern logistics services have a wider scope and are more closely connected with enterprises in the supply chain.
Fifth, modern logistics service companies need a complete logistics network. How to establish and improve their own logistics network is more important than that of an enterprise that only engages in cargo forwarding. Without a perfect network, it is impossible to do a good job in supply chain management and transportation services.
