Welcome to The Logistics Files, a free library of simple tools and checklists that explain how goods move around the world and what they really cost. Everything here is written in plain English, and any dotted word can be hovered or tapped to see its meaning.
Demurrage and Storage Clock
Your container is waiting at the port and three separate meters are running. See what the delay is costing right now, what one more day costs, and the date the rate jumps. Any port, any currency.
Landed Cost Calculator
The supplier’s price is the smallest part of what you pay. Work out what one unit really costs you by the time it reaches your warehouse, and whether you can still sell it at a profit.
Quotation Builder
For forwarders and anyone who prices freight. Builds a complete quotation, checks it against the things that cause disputes later, then hands it back to you under your own logo as a PDF or an Excel file you can send straight to your client.
Shipment Profit Calculator
For forwarders. What a finished job actually kept once you count the money you fronted, the bank charges, the hours and the charges nobody billed. Gross profit is not what you keep.
Rate Bank
For forwarders. Keep every rate you are given, leg by leg, with who gave it and when it expires. It warns you when a rate has gone stale and when two rates for the same lane disagree.
Customs Duty Calculator (Nigeria)
Type in what your goods cost and see everything customs will charge, with every charge explained in plain words.
Plain Words Glossary
Every logistics term and abbreviation used on this site, explained the way you would explain it to a friend.
Can I Import This?
Before you ask what the duty will be, ask whether you are allowed to bring it in at all. Banned goods, and the permits that must be obtained before the goods load.
What To Ask Your Forwarder
The questions to send before you commit, tailored to your shipment, each with what a good answer and a worrying answer sound like.
Shipment Planner
Tell it when the goods leave and it works backwards to say what has to happen when, marks what stops a shipment against what merely delays it, and gives you a calendar file so the deadlines actually reach you.
Printable Checklists
One page per shipment type, listing every document, grouped by when it has to exist, with a box to tick and a line to date. Print it or save it as a PDF. No email address needed.
HS Code Finder
Every product in world trade has a number, and that number decides your tax rate. Search the tariff in plain English and find yours.
The Documentation Toolkit
Bringing goods in? Sending goods out? Moving house? One checklist for each situation: every paper you need, who gives it to you, when you need it, and what happens if it is missing.
The Clearance Journey
The full story of how a shipment travels from a factory in one country to a doorstep in another, told stage by stage. No jargon, and every fee explained.
Temporary Admission Permit
Bringing a rig, a vessel, a crane or a machine into a country for one job, then taking it back out, without paying import duty. What guarantee they will ask for, every document, and a clock that works out your deadlines.
Working in Nigerian Oil and Gas
The biggest buyer of logistics in the country, and the hardest door to get through. The local content rule, every register and permit, how tenders are scored, and a free check on whether your company is ready to bid.
Chargeable Weight Calculator
Carriers charge on the weight or the space, whichever is worse for them. See which one you are paying for, correctly for air, shared containers and road.
CBM Calculator
Cubic metres from your box sizes, in any unit, plus what that volume means for the container you should be booking.
Container Fit Calculator
How many of your cartons actually fit in each container, trying every way up, and whether space or weight stops you first.
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