Freight forwarders in India: list, licences and how to choose

The quick answer

There are thousands of freight forwarders in India, packed around the big ports and cargo airports. The Federation of Freight Forwarders' Associations in India (FFFAI) says its 30 member associations represent about 6,500 customs brokers. In Starleads' data there are 15,699 freight forwarders and customs clearing agents in 28 states and 101 cities (count on 28 October 2026), and Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai have the most. No single official list of freight forwarders exists. The closest things are the member lists of FFFAI and the Air Cargo Agents Association of India (ACAAI), the FIATA and IATA directories, and the customs broker licences that Customs grants under the Customs Brokers Licensing Regulations, 2018.

This guide is for two kinds of reader. Exporters and importers want to find and check a freight forwarder they can trust with a shipment. Businesses that sell to forwarders (software, transport, packing, insurance, warehousing, staffing) want a list of freight forwarders in India they can actually reach. It covers who does what in a shipment, how many forwarders there are and where, what a customs broker licence involves and how to check one, a step-by-step way to choose a forwarder, and how to approach forwarders as customers without breaking TRAI's rules on calls and messages. The Starleads figures in it are counts of contacts in Starleads' data, not an official census.

Freight forwarder, customs broker, shipping line: who does what

People often search for "freight forwarders in India" when they really need one part of the chain, such as clearing a shipment at a port, booking a container, or moving goods from a factory to the port. The words overlap in everyday use, and many Indian firms do several of these jobs under one roof, so it helps to separate them before you start calling.

Who	What they do	Licence or membership to ask about	When you need them
Freight forwarder	Plans and books the whole movement: space with a shipping line or airline, pick-up, documents, often insurance and delivery at the other end through overseas agents. Usually issues its own house bill of lading or house air waybill.	Membership of FFFAI's member associations, ACAAI (air cargo), FIATA; IATA cargo agent status for air	Any export or import where you want one party to arrange everything
Customs broker (earlier called CHA, custom house agent)	Files bills of entry and shipping bills, handles assessment, examination and duty payment at the customs station	Licence under the Customs Brokers Licensing Regulations, 2018	Every shipment that crosses customs, unless you clear it yourself
Shipping line or airline	Owns or operates the vessel or aircraft and issues the master bill of lading or master air waybill	Not a forwarder; deals with forwarders and large shippers directly	Big, regular volumes where you book directly
Transporter	Moves the goods by road, from factory to port, inland container depot or airport, and back	Its own permits and fleet; see our transporters guide	First and last mile inside India
Courier and express company	Carries documents and small parcels door to door on its own network	Its own network; see our list of courier companies	Samples and small, urgent shipments

In practice, most forwarders in Indian port cities either hold a customs broker licence themselves or work with a broker they trust, which is why Starleads keeps freight forwarders and customs clearing agents in one list. When you call a firm, ask plainly which of these jobs it does in-house and which it hands to partners.

A few terms come up in every quote. FCL (full container load) means you book a whole 20-foot or 40-foot container; LCL (less than container load) means your cargo shares a container with other shippers, and the forwarder consolidates it. A house bill of lading (HBL) is issued by the forwarder; the master bill of lading (MBL) is issued by the shipping line to the forwarder. Incoterms such as FOB, CIF and EXW decide who pays for which leg, and therefore whether the forwarder you are talking to is working for you or for your overseas buyer.

How many freight forwarders are there in India?

Nobody publishes one official count, because "freight forwarder" is not one licence. You get different numbers depending on which door you look through. Here is what each source said when we checked on 28 October 2026:

Source	What it counts	Figure	What it is good for	What it leaves out
FFFAI	Customs brokers in its 30 member associations	About 6,500 customs brokers, employing over 1,10,000 people (as FFFAI states it)	Showing that a firm belongs to an established local association	Member details sit behind the federation's and associations' own sites and logins; not a contact list
ACAAI	Air cargo agents	600+ members, head office in Mumbai and 8 regional offices; founded in 1970 with 16 members	Air freight specialists	Sea-only forwarders, and the many small firms that are not members
FIATA members directory, India	FFFAI and ACAAI as association members, plus individual member companies	More than 500 individual member companies listed for India	Firms that pay for international membership, with postal address, email and named people	Smaller local forwarders and most customs brokers
IATA CargoLink	Cargo professionals worldwide	Over 20,000 professionals in 80+ countries; only a handful of Indian companies show in the public filter	Global air cargo players	Almost all Indian forwarders
Starleads	Freight forwarders and customs clearing agents with contact details	15,699 in 28 states and 101 cities	Calling, emailing and mapping the market by city	Licence status and membership; you check those yourself

The gap between 6,500 and 15,699 is not a contradiction. FFFAI counts licensed customs brokers inside its associations. Starleads' list also holds forwarders without a broker licence, shipping agents, consolidators and branch offices, each as its own contact. If you need licensed brokers only, use the list to find firms and then check the licence as described below.

Where freight forwarders are: port and airport cities

Freight forwarders cluster where cargo leaves the country: near the Mumbai and Nhava Sheva ports, the Delhi air cargo complex and inland container depots, Chennai port and airport, and the Kutch ports of Kandla and Mundra. Starleads' data shows that pattern clearly. Maharashtra (4,338), Delhi (2,392) and Tamil Nadu (1,540) together hold 53% of all freight forwarders and customs clearing agents in the list.

City or state	Contacts in Starleads' data	With a mobile number	With an email address
Mumbai	3,620	85%	39%
Delhi (state)	2,392	76%	47%
Chennai	1,284	61%	47%
Gujarat	1,009	91%	46%
Bengaluru	792	97%	42%
New Delhi	499	68%	60%
Ahmedabad	430	97%	45%
Hyderabad	427	81%	42%
Kolkata	412	65%	47%
Pune	372	81%	52%
Jaipur	282	87%	38%

A few things stand out. Within Maharashtra, Mumbai alone has 3,620 of the 4,338 contacts; Pune (372), Nagpur (116), Navi Mumbai (60) and Thane (49) follow a long way behind. Gujarat is more spread out: Ahmedabad has 430, then Vadodara 166, Vapi 115, Gandhidham 82 (the town that serves Kandla port) and Surat 74. In Tamil Nadu, Chennai has 1,284, and the rest are mostly in Coimbatore (130), Tuticorin (32) and Tiruppur (24), the garment town. Kolkata has 412 of West Bengal's 425.

The coverage columns matter if you plan to call or email. Bengaluru and Ahmedabad have a mobile number for 97% of contacts, while Chennai has one for 61%; a Chennai campaign leans more on landlines and email. Within the all-India list, the "Freight & Customs" category (10,402 contacts) has a mobile number for 80%, but the "Shipping Directory" group (1,580) is the other way round: 20% with a mobile and 88% with an email address, which suits an email-first approach.

What a customs broker licence involves, and how to check one

Clearing goods through customs on someone else's behalf is a licensed job. The Customs Brokers Licensing Regulations, 2018 (CBLR), made by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs under the Customs Act, 1962, set out the rules. We read the consolidated text, with amendments up to July 2021, on 28 October 2026. The main points:

• No licence, no customs work for others. Regulation 3 says no one may carry on business as a customs broker at any customs station without a licence. There are exceptions: an importer or exporter clearing its own goods does not need one, nor does its own employee holding a Customs-issued identity card.
• Eligibility. The applicant must be an Indian citizen with Aadhaar and PAN, with no penalty under the Customs, Central Excise, Finance or GST Acts and no criminal case pending. The person who will handle customs work must be a graduate and hold a professional qualification (such as a Masters in accounting, finance or management, CA, CS, MBA, LLM, ACMA or FCMA, or a diploma in customs clearance work) or have at least two years' experience as a "G card" holder. The applicant must also show assets of at least five lakh rupees, through a scheduled bank certificate or similar proof.
• Examination. The National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes and Narcotics (NACIN) holds an online written exam and then an oral exam. The syllabus runs from bills of entry and shipping bills to classification, valuation, drawback, SEZ procedure, ICEGATE filing and allied laws. An applicant gets at most six attempts.
• Licence and security. An individual gets the licence in Form B1; a company, firm or association gets it in Form B2 if a director, partner or authorised employee has passed the exam. Before it is granted, the broker signs a bond and gives security of five lakh rupees. The fee is ₹500 to apply and ₹5,000 for the licence.
• Where it is valid. A broker can work at any customs station after sending an intimation in Form C to the Commissioner there.
• How long it lasts. Since the July 2021 amendment, a licence stays valid until revoked. But it is treated as invalid if the broker does no customs business for a year.
• Duties to clients. Regulation 10 requires a broker to get authorisation from each client, advise the client to comply with the law, take care that the information it gives a client is correct, pass on duty and refunds promptly, and keep proper records of every bill of entry and shipping bill.

What this means for you as a buyer: ask the forwarder whether it holds a customs broker licence itself or works through a licensed broker, and for the broker's name and licence number. Then confirm it with the Customs Commissionerate that issued it. A broker you pay should also be able to give you an authorisation letter to sign, as Regulation 10 requires. Check the company too: its GST registration and, for a company or LLP, its MCA record. Our company search guide shows how to look up MCA, GST and IEC details for free.

How to choose a freight forwarder: step by step

Exporters who ship a few containers a year often pick a forwarder from one recommendation and then stay with it for years. A little more work at the start saves money and late shipments later. This is a practical sequence for an exporter or importer:

1. Write down your lane and your cargo. Port or airport of loading, destination, how often you ship, FCL or LCL, weight and volume per shipment, any hazardous, temperature-controlled or oversized goods, and your usual Incoterm. Forwarders quote faster and more accurately when they have this in one message.
2. Build a shortlist of eight to twelve firms in your port city. Use the city lists above, ask your buyer and your CA who they use, and look at the FIATA directory for firms with overseas networks. Keep both large and small firms on the list: big forwarders have contracts with shipping lines, small ones often give closer attention to small shippers.
3. Check each one before you send cargo details. GST number and legal name, company or LLP record, how long it has been trading, association membership (FFFAI member association, ACAAI for air), and the customs broker licence, its own or its partner's.
4. Ask the same questions of everyone. Which lanes they ship most; whether they have their own office or an agent at your destination; who issues the bill of lading; whether they handle customs, transport to the port and insurance themselves; how they handle detention and demurrage; and two exporter references in your industry.
5. Compare quotes line by line. Ask for ocean or air freight, origin charges, destination charges, customs clearance, transport, documentation and any surcharges, each on its own line, valid for a stated period. A low freight rate can hide high local charges.
6. Start with one trial shipment. Watch how quickly they share the booking, the draft documents and the tracking, and how they handle a problem. Then decide whether to give them regular volume.
7. Put the terms in writing. Payment terms, who pays what at each end, liability limits, and what happens when a ship is delayed or a container is held for inspection.

If you are new to exporting, our guide on how to find buyers for export covers the step before this one, and our exporters and importers database guide explains the free government sources for trade data.

Our freight forwarders list, by city

Our Freight Forwarders & Customs Clearing Agents list has 15,699 contacts in 101 cities. 75% have a mobile number and 46% an email address, and 57% name a contact person. Most are in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru and New Delhi. Each row has the business name, contact person where known, category, mobile, landline, email, website, address, city, state and PIN code. Every list page shows 60 sample rows, and the sample downloads free as an Excel file; you can buy one of 9 cities instead of all of India.

Freight forwarders by city

• Mumbai 3,620 contacts · 39% email · 85% mobile ₹499
• Chennai 1,284 contacts · 47% email · 61% mobile ₹499
• Bengaluru 792 contacts · 42% email · 97% mobile ₹499
• New Delhi 499 contacts · 60% email · 68% mobile ₹499
• Ahmedabad 430 contacts · 45% email · 97% mobile ₹499
• Hyderabad 427 contacts · 42% email · 81% mobile ₹499
• Kolkata 412 contacts · 47% email · 65% mobile ₹499
• Pune 372 contacts · 52% email · 81% mobile ₹499
• Jaipur 282 contacts · 38% email · 87% mobile ₹499

Exporters, importers and other related lists

Forwarders' own customers are exporters and importers, and their partners are transporters and warehouses. These lists sit on either side of them.

• Freight Forwarders & Customs Clearing Agents 15,699 contacts · 46% email · 75% mobile ₹1,999
• Exporters 1,75,373 contacts · 85% email · 71% mobile ₹1,999
• Importers 1,08,764 contacts · 95% email · 90% mobile ₹1,999
• Transporters & Logistics Companies 41,932 contacts · 51% email · 93% mobile ₹1,999

What the list does not tell you: whether a firm holds a customs broker licence, which associations it belongs to, which lanes it is strong on, or how big it is. Starleads compiles business contacts from business directories and similar sources and cleans them, but contact details change, so check the 60 sample rows before you buy. The All-India file costs ₹1,999 and each city or state list ₹499 (prices on the About page on 28 October 2026). You can also combine freight forwarders with exporters or transporters in one file in the list builder, and see how the industry compares with others on the Insights page.

Selling to freight forwarders: who buys what

Freight forwarders are busy, phone-driven businesses that buy a lot of services, which makes them a good market for many Indian sellers. The ones who search for a "freight forwarders list" to sell to usually offer:

• Software: freight management and quotation tools, customs filing software, accounting and GST software, CRM, container tracking.
• Transport and warehousing: trucking to ports and inland container depots, container yards, bonded and general warehouses, cold storage. Starleads has separate lists of transporters and logistics companies (41,932 contacts) and cold storage and warehouses (2,051).
• Packing and lashing: export packing, wooden pallets and crates, lashing and dunnage.
• Insurance and finance: marine cargo insurance through brokers, working capital, bank guarantees for the customs bond.
• People: staffing, training for the customs broker exam, documentation executives.
• Overseas agents: forwarders abroad looking for an Indian partner to handle their India-bound cargo.

Who decides depends on the size of the firm. In a small Mumbai or Chennai forwarder the owner decides almost everything; in a larger one, the branch manager handles transport and local vendors while the head office chooses software and insurance. Ask early who else needs to agree.

Timing helps. Forwarders are busiest around vessel cut-offs and at the end of the month and financial year, when exporters rush shipments. A call on a quiet mid-week morning, short and specific, works better than a long pitch at 5 pm. Start with what you know about their business: "You handle a lot of garment cargo from Tiruppur through Tuticorin; we run daily trucks on that route and can share a rate card."

Calling, SMS and email: the rules that apply

Freight forwarders are businesses, but most of the numbers you will call are mobile numbers, and TRAI's rules apply to them. The TRAI preference registration page explains that people can block promotional calls and SMS by calling or texting 1909, through an app or a web portal; that is the National Customer Preference Register (NCPR), also called DND. Before a promotional call or SMS, check numbers against it; our DND check guide shows how.

For bulk SMS, the TRAI advice to senders sets out the steps: register as a principal entity on a telecom operator's DLT platform, get a header assigned, register every content template, and register consent templates and record consent where you send to people who have agreed to hear from you. A message sent without those steps is blocked by the network. In practice:

• Use one-to-one calls from a normal business line, say who you are and why you are calling, and stop if the person asks.
• Send SMS only through a DLT-registered sender with registered templates.
• For email, use a domain you own, send small batches, and honour every unsubscribe. Our cold email templates give you wording to start from.
• On WhatsApp, follow WhatsApp's own business policies and message people who have agreed to hear from you; see our WhatsApp marketing guide.

Starleads sells business and professional contacts only. It does not sell consumer lists or lists of private individuals.

Questions people ask

Who are the top freight forwarders in India?

"Top" depends on your lane and cargo. Large global forwarders have Indian offices, and many Indian firms are strong on particular ports, lanes or cargo types. Rankings on the web are mostly marketing. A better test is who already ships your kind of cargo on your route: ask your buyer, look at the FIATA directory, and compare quotes from a shortlist as described above.

Is a freight forwarder the same as a CHA?

Not always. CHA (custom house agent) is the old name for a customs broker, who is licensed under the CBLR to clear goods through customs. A freight forwarder arranges the whole movement. Many Indian firms do both, but a forwarder without a licence has to use a licensed broker for customs clearance.

Do I need a freight forwarder to export from India?

No. An exporter may clear its own goods at customs without a broker licence, and large shippers book directly with shipping lines. Most small and mid-sized exporters still use a forwarder, because it handles bookings, documents and coordination with transport and customs in one place.

How many freight forwarders are there in India?

There is no single official count. FFFAI says its member associations represent about 6,500 customs brokers, ACAAI has 600+ air cargo members, and Starleads' data holds 15,699 freight forwarders and customs clearing agents with contact details (28 October 2026), the most in Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai.

How do I check whether a customs broker is licensed?

Ask for the licence number and the Customs Commissionerate that issued it, and confirm it with that office. Also check the firm's GST registration and company record.

Is there a free list of freight forwarders in India?

The FIATA members directory for India is free to view and lists more than 500 member companies with addresses and emails. FFFAI and ACAAI publish information about their members on their own sites. Starleads' free sample gives 60 contacts from any of its lists, with phone numbers and emails partly masked.

Can I get a list of freight forwarders in one city only?

Yes. Starleads sells city and state lists, for example Mumbai (3,620 contacts) or Chennai (1,284), for ₹499 each.