“And now for something completely different…”

We take a break from our regular blogs to reach out to our readers and shippers everywhere, asking you how we can serve your needs even better with our content.

At Universal Cargo, we strive to create regular content that is relevant, useful, and even occasionally entertaining for international shippers.

Ultimately, we want our content to be engaging for shippers and serve your needs as well as possible. To do that, we need your help.

What we want to know from you is how our content can serve you better.

There are 3 major ways you can let us know how our content can serve you better.

1. Comment on our blogs
2. Email us
3. Contact us through social media

We create content in the form of blogs and videos.

Here are 7 things we currently do with our content:

1. Cover Shipping News

So you don’t have to, we inspect both U.S. and world news, sharing and blogging on the stories that affect international shipping.

The most common type of blog we post is international shipping news related.

We even recently started a regular video series called Universal Shipping News, giving a quick overview of news stories you can read more about in our blogs.

We would love your thoughts on improving this video series as well.

2. Answer Your Questions

In striving to serve you with our content, we’re always asking on social media what you want to read about in our blogs. We even have a hashtag you can use to suggest topics or ask questions for us to cover in our blogs and videos: #WhatTheFreight

We take your questions and suggestions seriously.

Here are a few examples of you inspiring blogs with your questions/suggestions:

Matthew Matuse asked us on Facebook, “Is it still possible for people to travel as passengers on cargo ships?” which led to the blog:

Ask UCM: Can People Travel As Passengers On Cargo Ships? (w/ Videos)

We welcome you to ask as many questions or suggest as many shipping blog topics as you want.

That last example wasn’t the first time we received a question from Mr. Matuse on Facebook. Previously, he brought up a multi-faceted topic, wanting to know what’s going on with this canal going through Nicaragua, whether or not it is going to happen, if it is a good thing for America, and will it put the Panama Canal out of business.

We covered each of his questions in the blog:

Shippers’ Questions: What’s Going On With This Canal Thru Nicaragua

Even if your topic or question goes a bit beyond the (grantedly broad) topic of international shipping, we won’t ignore your queries.

Annie Eshleman responded to one of our call-outs for blog topics with “break down the whole Obamacare thing”.

So we did our best:

Obamacare Breakdown of Higher Health Insurance Costs to Consumer

3. Answer Commonly Asked Questions

We have an FAQ page, but we also cover some of the more frequent topics that shippers bring up in blogs like the following:

FAQ: Why are the shipping rates so volatile?

FAQ: What can I do to prevent delays in my import / export shipment?

4. Explain Shipping Regulation & Procedural Issues

If you ship with Universal Cargo, we’ll make sure you’re in compliance with international shipping regulations and everything is in place for your international shipping to go as smoothly as possible. But even if you don’t ship with UC, we share information you can access that will help you with shipping issues.

Things are always changing in the international shipping industry. So we share blogs that cover regulation, operational, or fee changes that are likely to affect international shippers.

Here is a handful of examples:

New Shipping Rule Shippers Must Follow to Get Containers Loaded

What’s Up with these Chassis Fees on My International Shipping?!

WHAT THE ISF?!

What’s Up With this VAT Tax Reform in China?

5. Define and Explain Important Shipping Terms

We have a Logistics Glossary, but sometimes we also blog more in depth explanations on important international shipping items like we did with the following blog:

What is Customs Clearance?

We even did a whole series to define Incoterms, which are important in business deals involving international shipping:

What’s the Deal With Incoterms?!

Incoterms Definitions Part 1: EXW, FCA, FAS, FOB

Incoterms Definitions Part 2: CFR, CIF, CPT, CIP

Incoterms Definitions Part 3: DAT, DAP, DDP

Sometimes, we even have a little fun with shipping definitions like in our series where we compare logistics definitions to their words’ corresponding Urban Dictionary definitions:

International Shipping Definitions Vs. Urban Dictionary Definitions

More International Shipping Definitions Vs. Urban Dictionary Definitions

Urban Dictionary Vs. Shipping Glossary Part 3

That leads us to…

6. Entertainment

Everyone needs to be entertained now and then, so sometimes we make international shipping related content that’s just for fun, bucking that whole international shipping is a boring topic trend.

While those Urban Dictionary blogs mentioned above do share shipping definitions, they are more about entertainment than illuminating shippers to the meaning of specific terms and would most belong in this section.

Many of our videos belong in this section.

Our most viewed videos are part of an animated series called Super Shipping about Superheroes quitting the hero biz to go into the international shipping and are, of course, such just-for-fun content.

Some time before Super Shipping, we produced another short (and short-lived) comedy series called the Eggie Files:

There are also entertainment blogs we post with educational value as well like shipping history posts:

International Shipping & The Great Tea Race of 1866

Freight History: Corporate Espionage in Early Modern China

And we do give in to the occasional weird shipping story with our Universal Bizargo series:

Universal Bizargo: American Shipping Human Body Parts from Bangkok

Universal Bizargo: Mystery of the Vanishing Ship & Phantom Pirates

Universal Bizargo: Hungover Man Wakes in Sealed Shipping Container

7. Share Books & Resources

Finally, we create blogs to share books and resources with our readers and shippers. There are the following examples:

Top International Shipping News & Blog Resources

Top 7 International Shipping Resources from UCM

Incoterms to Apps: 5 Resources to Help You Succeed in International Shipping

Then there are the occasional book reviews from our CEO and avid reader, Devin Burke like:

Dealing With China – Devin Burke’s Book Review

Book Review: Factory Man by Beth Macy

Book Review: China Inside Out by Bill Dodson

What do you want to see more or less of?

That brings us back to the purpose of today’s blog.

What type of content above helps you? What do you want to see more of? Or less of?

Are there types of content we should create that we’re currently overlooking?

How can our content be more engaging for you?

We value your feedback and hope to bring value to you with not only the international shipping services we provide, but also the content we create.

Source: UC Blog