Ocean Import Forwarding: What It Includes and What to Expect

Ocean schedule reliability remained in the 50-55% range throughout 2024, with late-arriving vessels averaging about 5.4 days of delay, meaning that containers were late half the time. But when spot rates can swing by 30% in a single quarter, it becomes clear that there is a difference between a forwarding arrangement and a forwarding program. A program means someone is managing shipment speed.

Laufer’s ocean import program is built on five operating disciplines, with its visibility platform, PeerPLUS, as the anchor of the solution and a team of experts as the operating layer.

Forwarders reserve space, move containers, record entries, and supervise the freight at the transaction level. Most importers know this. But what’s between those transactions, and is there somebody in charge of the pattern in between transactions?

The spot market is a world of the unpredictable. With blank sailings at some point in 2025 exceeding 25%, importers booking shipments on a shipment-by-shipment basis with no plan are more exposed to price swings and capacity gaps during those windows. That cycle can be substituted with a programmed process.

Laufer works with importers from the beginning of each engagement on monthly forecasts and SOP discipline so that a booking cadence is established and space is secured before the market tightens and carriers begin pulling capacity through blank sailings. In practice, this means that ocean is the default mode, but air, for instance, is offered as a controlled option when speed is critical due to disruption or seasonality. The point is: you can take that call on your own terms.

Although it helps, tracking a shipment once it’s on the water is only part of the story. What matters more is how early you get visibility and how much context you have to act on. For this, you will need:

With PeerPLUS, you get booking-level visibility long before a vessel gets underway. Milestone-based alerts tied to booking confirmation, departure, customs clearance, and container availability provide early warning signals to the logistics team along with exportable spreadsheet reports that tie back to the platform. This way, they can track shipments without switching between systems.

Importers with tariff exposure under Section 232, Section 301, AD/CVD, and IEEPA duties can also get duty type-level cost breakdowns at the shipment level with PeerPLUS.

Exception reporting captures deviations at the milestone level and pushes automatically to the right person. The value of the alert is in the lead time and context it provides. A customs hold found on day one is a phone call, but the same hold on day four is a demurrage charge.

Logistics managers do not usually need information solely for their own consumption. The warehouse needs arrival estimates for labor and dock scheduling, and finance needs landed cost data to close the books. But the purchasing team also wants to know if a vendor was late shipping (especially if it is a pattern) so they can adjust future orders.

PeerPLUS provides a single platform for multiple stakeholders so we don’t have to rely on anyone to forward an email or compile a spreadsheet to get updates. That kind of collective access speeds up how quickly a team can respond when something goes off course and reduces the back-and-forth that eats up hours every week.

Billing tends to add up. But Laufer’s billing discipline is milestone-driven and linked to actual shipment events. Fewer surprises on the invoice means less time spent reconciling and fewer hours in disputes that take your team away from planning work.

Laufer’s ocean import program is built on the idea that importers deserve a forwarding partner with the operational discipline and the platform to deliver predictable execution. PeerPLUS provides actionable visibility from booking to delivery, and the team behind it provides the proactive guidance that keeps problems from becoming costs. If you’re going around in circles with your current setup, it might be time to talk about alternatives. Contact us today to get started.