About us

Portlane Shipping arranges freight, prepares customs entries and delivers cargo. We work with importers, exporters and manufacturers who need to know where a consignment is, what it will cost and when it will arrive.

How a booking is handled

Every booking is assigned to a coordinator. That person books the space, prepares the documents, watches the schedule and answers the phone when you call about it. Nothing is handed to a different department at the border.

Before cargo moves we check the commercial invoice, the packing list and the transport document against each other. Most delays start as a document problem, and a document problem is far cheaper to fix while the goods are still in the warehouse.

How cargo is handled

Consignments are checked against the packing list when we receive them, and anything that arrives short, damaged or badly packed is photographed and raised with you the same day. Cargo is packed for the journey it is actually making, secured for the leg it is on, and stored under cover while it waits.

How you receive updates

When a booking is confirmed we issue a tracking number in the form PLS-48291735. Each stage of the movement is recorded against it by the coordinator handling the file: collection, departure, arrival, customs, release and delivery.

You can open the tracking page at any time to see the current status, the last reported location, the delivery estimate and the full history. If something needs explaining, the same page has a message box that reaches the team working on your shipment rather than a general inbox.

Documentation and communication

Two things decide whether a shipment runs smoothly: the paperwork being right before departure, and somebody telling you early when a schedule changes. We would rather call with an inconvenient update than let a delivery date slip quietly.

Talk to us

Send us the origin, the destination, a description of the cargo and an approximate weight. We will come back with a rate and a realistic transit time.