Shipping & Documentation

The Shipping and Documentation department covers export logistics execution for the global garments trade. It teaches CBM container stuffing calculations, shipping line bill of lading terms, TEU optimisation, and port customs clearance. This work suits shipping managers, export documentation executives, logistics officers and customs agents, and it rewards people who plan a container before they book it, because a container booked wrong costs money whether it sails half empty or leaves cartons behind.

Container mathematics starts with the carton: length, width and height give cubic metres, cartons give shipment volume, and volume against weight decides how a container fills. The calculators on this site use one set of container specifications, and the department teaches them exactly as coded: a 20 foot container holds 28 cubic metres up to 21,700 kilograms, a 40 foot container holds 58 cubic metres up to 26,500 kilograms, a 40 foot high cube holds 68 cubic metres up to 26,500 kilograms, and a 45 foot high cube holds 76 cubic metres up to 27,500 kilograms. Usable volume is always below the theoretical maximum, so a plan that fills a container on paper alone will fail at stuffing time. Bill of lading terms and customs documents complete the picture, because the container is only half the shipment.

The Shipping Export Logistics course is the main study path for this department, and it pairs with the commercial calculators on this site: CBM, total shipment volume, container loading, carton weight and freight cost, plus the CBM and container loading guide and the HS code directory for classification. Readers who work a shipment through volume, then weight, then container choice, then freight per piece will have the full export costing chain in hand.

If you book containers, prepare shipping documents, or clear goods at port, this department connects the documents to the steel box. From here, the Commercial Management department covers the letters of credit and export papers that travel with the goods, and the Merchandising department covers the lead time those shipping dates must fit.