Triangular Shipments and Documents

Triangulation, also known as Triangular operations, intermediation, foreign-to-foreign shipments or cross trade shipments are a specialist freight forwarding service that is offered by most freight forwarding companies. 

A triangle shipment normally happens when there are three countries and three parties involved in a transaction. The shipment will be shipped from one country to another without passing through the country that the shipper’s business is established in. The shipment and transaction will involve the swapping of shipping documentation and invoicing while the product is in transit to the receiving country.

A triangulation shipment will require management by the shipper’s business to ensure that all parties within the international supply chain fully understand the requirements. The shipper’s business should work closely with the freight forwarder to develop an up-to-date and clear standard operating procedure (SOP) and follow this up with regular communication with the freight forwarder during each stage of the shipment. The use of triangulation will enable various supply chain solutions, such as swapping shipping documentation, swapping commercial invoicing, repackaging goods, and even relabelling or retagging. Management of the process at each stage of the supply chain is required to get various actions completed correctly, therefore ensuring that business relationships are protected.

We can guide and support your business through the end-to-end triangulation process.

The swapping of documents ensures that information about the supplier is not revealed to the end customer. In the case of ocean freight transportation, the freight forwarder will issue a switch or blind bill of lading for export customs purposes, and this will not contain any details regarding the supplier. Air freight transportation is very similar with a switch or blind air waybill being raised, which will not contain any details regarding the supplier.

The first set of documents, commercial invoice, certificate of origin, packing list, health certificate or similar documents serve as the export customs clearance documents. Once the goods have been export cleared and the trade terms have been settled, the documents are sent to the selling company and not to the end customer.

A second set of documents containing information about the selling company and the end customer is produced. The second set of documents will have no details about the supplier or the pricing between the supplier and the selling company. This second set of documents will enable onward delivery and will serve as the import customs clearance documents.

The freight forwarder is an integral part of this process and will be pivotal at every step of this complex international supply chain. Triangulation shipments are a specialist freight forwarding service and while the concept is well known within the freight industry, it is not always understood. Therefore, it is critical that the seller builds a strong relationship with the freight forwarder and the requirements are agreed and documented within a written standard operating procedure (SOP).

The freight forwarder needs to have a thorough understanding of the end-to-end requirements. To get this right, the step-by-step requirements need to be mapped out with the freight forwarder well in advance of any Triangulation shipments.