When there is no freight forwarder, carriers (such as airlines) have to directly face numerous shippers or consignees. The presence of freight forwarders can alleviate the heavy workload of carriers due to directly facing shippers, allowing carriers to concentrate on their core business - transportation. Similarly, the existence of freight forwarders, due to their professional knowledge, eliminates the need for shippers to deal with each carrier, reducing their workload.
The main business of freight forwarders, such as booking cargo space for shippers (shippers or consignees), picking up and delivering goods, tracking and querying the status of goods, handling customs declaration, inspection, warehousing, packaging, document preparation, distribution, etc., greatly reduces the difficulty of shippers' business.
Freight forwarders are more like 'distributors'. Freight forwarders with a large and stable supply of goods and certain qualifications can obtain the agency rights of carriers (become shipping agents). Freight forwarders with carrier agency rights can apply the carrier's waybill at their workplace and obtain more favorable freight prices from the carrier.
Freight forwarders for air or sea container consolidation services also act like "wholesalers". The characteristic of air freight is that as the volume of goods increases, the unit freight rate will decrease. Therefore, freight forwarders with a large and stable supply of goods can often "obtain" more favorable cabin space from carriers, and then "retail" the cabin space to smaller freight forwarders or sell it directly to shippers. This also enables carriers to have stable cargo volume and revenue.