Air or sea freight to Nigeria: compare the whole delivery quote

Define where the journey starts and finishes

A quote for airport arrival in Nigeria and a quote for delivery to your Lagos warehouse describe different services. Before comparing air and sea freight, identify collection location, port or airport, final address and who handles each stage. The lowest headline freight charge does not establish the lowest delivered cost.

Give each provider the same cargo description and requested end point. State whether goods require special handling or inspection and whether the seller has already included a transport stage. Ask for the service's actual scope in writing rather than interpreting door to door as a complete promise.

Quote the packed shipment, not the product alone

Request the number of cartons or pallets, external dimensions and gross packed weight. The product's net weight can omit cartons, protective packing and pallet materials. Ask the carrier how it determines chargeable weight or volume, which divisor or minimum applies, and when the measurement becomes final.

Illustration only: ten cartons each measure 0.5 by 0.4 by 0.3 metres. Their combined volume is 0.6 cubic metres before any pallet or additional packaging. That arithmetic does not establish a carrier's billed quantity; minimums and the provider's actual measurement rules still matter. Use the dimensions of the shipment that will really be dispatched.

Separate the line items and exclusions

Ask for collection, handling, main freight, destination handling, clearance service and inland delivery as identifiable items. Determine whether an item is included, excluded or still awaiting assessment. A blank field is not evidence that a charge is zero.

Confirm the quoted currency, quote expiry and how later changes are communicated. Duties or taxes should have a verified product-specific basis; a freight provider's service fee is a different item. If goods are consolidated with other consignments, ask which costs are shared and which are charged to your shipment.

• Collection and loading responsibilities
• Packed measurements and billing rules
• Origin and destination handling
• Main transport and any onward leg
• Clearance service versus assessed government charges
• Delivery, storage and delayed-collection conditions

Compare dates that mean the same thing

Production readiness, booking acceptance, departure, arrival and release are separate milestones. An advertised transit time may cover only the main journey, excluding waiting for departure or release. Ask which dates are estimates and which obligations are actually guaranteed by the contract.

For stock needed before a customer deadline, work backwards from usable delivery at the final address. Record the stages still unconfirmed. Do not add an arbitrary number of days for clearance and present the resulting date as a promise; ask the responsible party what could affect that stage.

Compare suitability as well as price

Ask how the route and packing protect the actual product, how loss or damage is documented and which insurance arrangements exist. Cargo that arrives sooner but cannot be accepted is not a successful comparison outcome. Keep the contract, measurements, tracking and delivery evidence together.

NEPC's logistics guidance gives Nigerian exporters a useful framework for transport and responsibility questions, although a particular import quote needs its own terms. Use the converter to compare foreign-currency charges consistently, then return to the written logistics quote for the final decision.