Unboxing the Container

Everyone in this industry knows what a container is — far fewer can explain where the box quietly costs them margin, or hands them more of it.

A transhipment nobody counted. A VGM lodged late. A consolidation your desk could be selling and isn't. A bill of lading released a little too early, which is where forwarder liability actually comes from.

This is not a course about learning container shipping. It is about the parts most people were never formally taught. Three focused mornings — take the full series, or the single session you need.

Start with Session 2 if you only take one

Consolidation is the least-taught discipline in freight forwarding. Most people in ocean freight can quote an FCL in their sleep and have never had groupage explained properly. Session 2 stands on its own and is not beginner content — experienced FCL staff who have never worked groupage are exactly the right audience.

Session 1 — The Container System

Tuesday 27 October · 09:00–11:30 CET

• Standard sizes and special equipment — what a 20ft really holds in practice, plus reefers, flat racks and liner bags
• Tare, payload and max gross — and why the road weight limit bites first
• Reading a box: ISO 6346, the check digit, the size/type code, the CSC plate
• Vessels, canals, hubs and the 2026 alliance map
• Why transhipment never changes the origin of your goods
• SOLAS and VGM, and where carrier visibility lets you down

Session 2 — Consolidation & the Economics of the Box

Tuesday 3 November · 09:00–11:30 CET

• FCL, LCL and the CFS, and the break-even that is not just about price
• Head load and tail load — how a consolidation is really built, and the two ways it is unwound
• Buyer's consolidation, the milk run, co-loading and groupage risk
• How LCL is charged — weight or measurement, and where the groupage margin sits
• The forwarder as NVOCC, and the liability gap your house bill opens
• Your agent is your liability: vetting, financial standing, insurance
• Demurrage, detention and quay rent as three separate clocks

Session 3 — The Container Contract

Tuesday 10 November · 09:00–11:30 CET

• Incoterms 2020 — why FOB, CFR and CIF are the wrong rules, used daily anyway
• How a remark at the gate becomes a claused Bill of Lading
• The Bill of Lading: functions, negotiability, package limitation, letters of indemnity
• Said to contain — what the carrier is and is not promising
• Which document you need: house, ocean, sea waybill or electronic
• The three release gates, and misdelivery

Your trainers

Johan Proost, founder of Proost & Partners — 30+ years in shipping, charterparties and cargo law.

Geert De Wilde, founder of Loxygen — 30+ years in freight forwarding and port data. Co-delivers Sessions 1 and 2.

Practical

Small groups, so you can ask questions throughout. Open to CrossTrades, SeaBlue Project Logistics Network, Flyte and NXT-Global members, and to non-members.

Booking three or more from one company? Contact geert@loxygen.world for the team rate.