Moving Freight from point to point

Unless you wish to move an item of freight between capital cities, there are very few companies that can provide a complete freight service from a capital city to a country town.  The basic laws of supply and demand mean the more obscure the pick up point or destination, the more likely you will have issues getting your consignment delivered in timely and reasonably priced manner.

See examples below-

• Sydney to Brisbane - plenty of transport options, large number of carriers
• Sydney to Newcastle - less carriers available, though you would still find a carrier quite easily.
• Sydney to Tamworth - Reduced number of carriers, rate would increase, chance of getting your freight picked up direct would be greatly reduced
• Sydney to Batlow (NSW) - Limited number of carriers that could provide a direct pick and delivery.  Rate would increase again reflecting the reduced number of consignments travelling on this route.
• Batlow to Tamworth - No direct service between the two towns.  Any consignments would be routed via Sydney.  Ie.  Batlow to Sydney, Sydney to Tamworth.

Hopefully this is a simple enough example to help you understand how transport services in Australia begin as small hubs that slowly expand until they reach a large regional centre or capital city.  Once they reach these centres, they 'overlap' so they can move on the next hub.

To show it another way, imagine a car travelling a loop between Brisbane and Tweed Heads, then another completing a loop between Tweed Heads and Grafton, and another between Grafton and Kempsey and so on.  Now if a hitchhiker was trying to get a lift directly from Brisbane to Kempsey it would not be possible based on these parameters.  However he could just get a ride from Brisbane to Tweed Heads with car one, wait for the next car to arrive and get a ride to Grafton and so on.

That's the basics of moving freight around the country.  Some very large carriers try to be everything to everyone and are successful to a point.  Some of the national courier companies are exceptionally good at this kind of thing - but you will pay dearly for the service.  There are a few options for you as the consignor (sender of the freight) or the consignee (receiver of the freight).  Which option you choose depends on the following-

• The volume of freight you have (the more freight the better your buying or negotiating power)
• The route of your freight (are you moving between capitals, country areas etc)
• The urgency of your freight (do you need it overnight or within the next week)
• The type of freight (can it be affected by weather conditions, is it valuable etc)

Then you have the options of how you organise transport.  These include

• Calling carriers for quotes and organising each leg yourself
• Using a multinational carrier and paying the extra cost for the convenience
• Using a Loading Agent that arranges the transport on your behalf and charges a commission or flat rate for the service
• Hiring a vehicle yourself and loading/delivering the consignment.