Top types of shipping companies in Saudi Arabia in 2024

Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Group, says: "Shipping is an integral part of successful business, it is the essential cornerstone that ensures the flow of goods and merchandise between different markets."

In this quote, there is a clear indication of the importance of shipping for all commercial activities of different sizes and needs. This increasing importance has led to the emergence of many shipping companies with different types of services to meet all needs and requirements.

The question is, what are the different types of shipping companies spread in the Saudi market in particular and the Arab region in general? And how did these companies contribute to the success of commercial activities?

This is exactly the topic of the blog, so let's follow along and start by reviewing the types.

The most prominent types of shipping companies in Saudi Arabia

The types of shipping companies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia can be classified according to three main criteria, which are:

• Delivery scope.

• Shipping services.

• Means of transport.

Here are more details on each of these criteria:

First: Types of shipping companies according to delivery scope:

In this context, shipping companies are divided into two types:

1. Local shipping companies

These are companies that operate within the country's borders, through which goods, parcels, and shipments are delivered between local cities and regions. Examples include companies such as: Aymakan, Shipa, and Subul, among others.

This type of company plays an important role in the local commercial sector, as it contributes to meeting the needs of nascent, small, and medium enterprises by providing essential shipping services that ensure the safe and efficient delivery of products to their destinations.

2. International shipping companies

These are companies that provide shipping services between different countries. This type of shipping company deals with various international shipments, including commercial shipments from merchants to their customers, and personal shipments from individuals to their relatives or acquaintances.

Examples of famous international shipping companies that also operate in Saudi Arabia include: DHL, FedEx, and UPS.

We would like to note that there is a group of shipping companies specialized in transporting and delivering goods and merchandise locally only, while other groups specialize in shipping and delivering products on both the local and international sides.

Second: Types of shipping companies according to the services provided:

The services provided by shipping companies vary, and here are the most prominent of these services according to which shipping companies can be classified:

• Integrated logistics services companies

These are companies that provide comprehensive solutions for supply chain management for various institutions and commercial activities, as they work to meet the various requirements related to shipping, storage, packaging, distribution, etc.

• Express shipping companies:

These are companies that work to ship and deliver items as quickly as possible according to the recognized scenarios in express shipping services, which include:

• Bullet Delivery, which is the approach followed by most restaurants and online grocery stores such as Hungerstation.

• Same-Day Delivery, which is usually used to deliver urgent documents or others, and one of the most prominent companies that offers this service is SMSA.

• Next Day Delivery.

• Shipping within three days at most.

• Refrigerated shipping companies:

This is a type of shipping company that is concerned with transporting temperature-sensitive goods that require a specific temperature, such as: medical products, fresh food, temperature-sensitive chemicals, and others. They are divided into frozen shipping, where the temperature is below zero, and refrigerated shipping, where the temperature is below 10 degrees Celsius.

Refrigerated shipping companies use special technologies to maintain a specific temperature for shipments during the transportation process, and they also use refrigerated containers, whether the transportation is via trucks, airplanes, or others. One of the most prominent of these companies is Road Co. for Refrigerated Transport.

• Dry shipping companies:

This is a type of shipping company that is concerned with transporting dry goods or goods that do not need refrigeration or maintaining a specific temperature. These goods include grains, fertilizers, dried fish, raw materials, household tools, and medical supplies that are not temperature-sensitive.

• Heavy weight shipping companies:

This type of shipping company is specialized in transporting heavy goods and equipment that are difficult to transport and move by ordinary trucks. This type of company is very important for the furniture, construction, mining, oil, and gas industries, and others, due to its high capabilities in transporting heavy equipment of all kinds, and providing lifting, loading, and unloading services for heavy loads using special equipment such as forklifts, hydraulic cranes, and others. One of the most prominent companies that offers this service is Zajil.

• Ro-Ro shipping companies:

This is a type of company that is concerned with providing sea shipping services using the Ro-Ro system, which is short for Roll-on/Roll-off, which is a type of sea shipping that relies on transporting and unloading shipments using specialized tools.

These companies specialize in transporting cars, buses, and heavy equipment, where they are loaded onto ships equipped with the Ro-Ro system using special platforms and then unloaded in the same way upon arrival at the intended port. Examples of these companies include NMT Shipping Company.

Third: Types of shipping according to the means of transport used:

• Land shipping companies:

These are companies that provide transportation services on land routes for shipping various goods within the country's borders, or between countries with close borders. These companies rely on transporting goods via specialized trucks and vehicles to travel long distances and carry various weights.

It is worth noting that land shipping companies rely in their work on their warehouses spread across many points around the world by relying on shipping agents to build an interconnected network for shipping products easily by land.

• Sea shipping companies:

These companies rely on transporting goods via ships in large containers to transport huge quantities of goods or heavy equipment. It is worth noting that relying on sea freight as a means of transport takes several weeks or months, depending on the distance and weather and sea conditions.

Despite the long shipping duration, sea freight is one of the most economical shipping methods or means due to the ships' ability to accommodate huge quantities of goods, which saves on the total shipping cost.

• Air shipping companies:

These are companies that rely on airplanes to ship goods, especially those that need fast transport, such as plasma, other vital medical supplies, and perishable food products, etc.

We would like to point out that there are shipping companies that rely on sea and air transport only, or combine all three means of transport within their work system to meet the different needs and requirements of customers.

⭐ Read also: How to contract with shipping companies in Saudi Arabia

The importance of shipping companies in the success of commercial activities

Given the flourishing field of e-commerce, which has become the economic structure of the world, shipping companies are of great importance and play an effective role in the success of various commercial activities, as they are responsible for shipping and delivering products both locally and internationally, and they also have an influential role in providing innovative solutions to simplify the shipping process and strategically transport and move goods from one point to another until they are delivered to the final consumer at the specified time.

Among the most prominent factors that contributed to the success of commercial activities are:

• Providing a distinctive shipping experience:

This is by providing many services such as: express shipping, door-to-door shipping, cash on delivery, and other shipping and logistics services that play an effective role in gaining customer satisfaction and enhancing their loyalty to the commercial activity.

• Customs clearance:

Customs clearance requires accurate documentation of documents related to shipments, whether outgoing or incoming, and incomplete or inaccurate documentation may directly affect the smooth process of international shipping of goods, leading to delays in the delivery time of shipments.

Specialized shipping companies play an effective role in completing all formal procedures for documents related to the shipment, which helps in the smooth flow of goods and prevents their damage, and then delivering them as quickly as possible and with the best quality.

• Safe delivery:

Shipping companies have an influential and effective role in the shipment delivery process. For example, specialized shipping companies provide some recommendations regarding the packaging of products to preserve them during transit and ensure that they are not damaged, and then ship and deliver them with the best possible quality.

They also give customers an added advantage of tracking and monitoring the path of shipments and knowing the delivery time, which gives customers a sense of security and trust in the commercial activity.

• Fast delivery:

Shipping companies enable various commercial activities to meet customer needs quickly and effectively. With the booming field of e-commerce, delivery speed has become more important than ever, as customers expect to receive their products as soon as possible. Therefore, speed of delivery has an influential and effective role in gaining customer satisfaction.

In conclusion

Shipping companies vary greatly and differ from each other in terms of the services they provide and the methods of handling shipments.

From large international companies to small local companies, each company has its advantages and disadvantages, and each commercial activity has its own needs and requirements that must align with its appropriate choice of a shipping company capable of meeting its needs as required.

Finally, we emphasize the need to choose the correct type of shipping company that is most suitable and that contributes to making a positive difference in your shipping experience and its success.