A freight forwarder organises the transport of goods for its customer without necessarily carrying them itself. In German law the forwarding contract is set out in Section 453 of the Commercial Code (HGB).
Tasks: selecting and hiring carriers, organising routes, documents, often customs and warehousing.
Margin: the forwarder earns the difference between the customer's price and the carrier's price.
Costing: knowing the real cost of a trip helps forwarders assess and negotiate carrier rates.