role of a shipper

[Former Member]

Hi,

I wan to know the basic difference between a shipper and a freight forwarder.

In terms of the functionality how SAP TM differentiates between them in terms of roles played by them in a transportation industry.

[d019838 · Accepted solution]

On a basic, high level, a shipper needs their goods/products to be transported (either inbound freight of purchased goods from their vendors or outbound freight of their products sold to their customers/consignees). A shipper could be a manufacturer of goods (i.e. high tech, chemical, automotive, consumer goods manufacturer) or i.e. a wholesaler, retailer, etc. SAP TM enables shippers to manage the planning & execution of their transportation requirements with the freight order management functionality.

Freight Forwarders are service provider companies whose business is to plan & coordinate transportation orders on behalf of their customers - shipper companies.They do not "sell" goods but sell their transportation services. Freight forwarders plan & manage the freight requirements of their customers in SAP TM with the forwarding order managament functionality.

[marlene_schumacher · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Have you checked the SAP TM documentation? You can find it under help.sap.com/transportationmanagement90

The page also contains a link to the service market place page, on which you can find PDFs of this documentation. These PDFs are handy to search for spceific terms, such as "role" or "shipper" in your case.

Best regards,

Marlene

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

In that case can we say that shipper is the customer for Freight forwarders.

[d019838 · Accepted solution]

I also recommend you to use the TM Terminology & Glossary Document made available to partners and customers via the SAP Service Marketplace TM area here.