How Courier Freight Works: Air Shipping for Cargo Over 100kg from Colombia

If you already ship from Colombia by courier, you probably know the moment this article is about. Orders pick up. What used to be two boxes a week becomes fifteen or twenty parcels a day. Or a supplier offers you a full lot of stock, a machine, a pallet of spare parts. You ask for a courier quote on all of it and the number no longer works. You ask about a formal export and hear about registrations, customs agents and paperwork that takes weeks. Meanwhile, the goods are sitting in a warehouse in Medellín.

Courier Freight exists for exactly that gap. It is a newer service, and few people search for it by name yet, but the problem it solves is very common. This guide explains what it is, why it costs less than courier, who can use it and how it works from start to finish. If you would rather go straight to the service, it is described on our Courier Freight service page.

What it is exactly

Courier Freight is heavy international shipping handled under a courier-style procedure. In plain terms: your goods fly as formal air cargo, not as a stack of parcels, with a simplified customs procedure on the way out of Colombia, and they are placed at the airport of the destination country. There, the receiver, or the customs broker they appoint, clears the goods and collects them.

The entry point is weight: from 100 kilos in a single shipment, and from there all the way up to a full aircraft. That range matters. Under 100 kilos, regular courier is still the right tool, and there is no point in forcing three boxes into a cargo shipment. Above it, the logic flips.

Two things make this different from what most people picture when they hear “exporting”:

• It is not parcel service under another name. The shipment is declared, documented cargo. It enters the destination country formally, available to that country’s customs authority.
• It is not the full formal export procedure either. The customs handling on the Colombian side is simplified, which is what makes it possible to move volume without the time and cost of a complete export operation for every shipment.

Why it costs less than courier

An express courier charges per parcel, and the rate pays for a complete service: pickup, the carrier’s own network, customs at destination, and last-mile delivery to the door. That model is excellent for one box. It is very expensive for half a ton, because the price was built for the box. The other large courier companies on the market do that job very well; moving heavy cargo just is not what their pricing is designed for.

Courier Freight inverts the logic in three ways:

1. You pay by cargo, not by parcel. Twenty boxes consolidated into one shipment are priced as one load, based on weight and volume, instead of as twenty separate parcels, each carrying its own handling charges.
2. Customs on the Colombian side is simplified. Less procedure means less cost built into every kilo.
3. Our responsibility ends at the destination airport. Taking the last-mile network and the door-to-door clearance out of the rate is a big part of why the cost per kilo drops.

How much less it costs depends on the destination, the weight and the volume of your cargo, so we calculate it on your actual shipment rather than promise a number in advance. Keep one detail in mind when you compare: air cargo is charged on whichever is greater, the actual weight or the volumetric weight. Light, bulky goods, like padded clothing or boxed lamps, can cost more than their weight suggests, and good packing makes a real difference.

Who can ship this way

There are two profiles, and it helps to recognise yourself in one before reading on.

Companies and online sellers. This includes businesses that already export and need to move a load without setting up a full operation for one shipment, and the growing number of sellers who started on Instagram or Facebook and now move real volume. Think of a women’s clothing brand or a boutique owner in the US buying from Colombian suppliers and sending fifteen or twenty parcels a day. At that pace, consolidating the week’s orders into one Courier Freight shipment can make more sense than paying parcel rates on every box.

It is also the route that stays open when the goods have already been paid for inside Colombia. The alternative for many sellers is to export through an international trading company, where Excolbi appears as the exporter and issues the invoice. That route, described on our export from Colombia service, requires the payment to come from abroad. If the money has already changed hands in Colombia, that door is closed, and Courier Freight is the one that remains.

Individuals. This is the part that surprises most people. You do not need a company, an exporter registration or an accountant. With your ID card or passport, you can ship the machine you bought, the spare parts for your business abroad or the merchandise you plan to resell. When we quote, we tell you which outbound paperwork applies to your case.

If you are a buyer outside Colombia, the same applies to you from the other side: your Colombian supplier can hand the goods over at one of our offices, and you receive them as formal cargo at your airport.

What you can send

What moves most through this route:

• Machinery and equipment, from sewing machines to industrial parts.
• Spare parts and tools for businesses operating abroad.
• Merchandise bought in Colombia for resale: clothing, shapewear, footwear, accessories, handcrafts, home goods.
• Commercial samples once they add up to real volume.

What needs a review before we accept it: anything with lithium batteries, liquids, aerosols, chemicals, or products of animal or plant origin. That is rarely a flat no. It is almost always a “tell us first”, because it changes the packaging, the documentation or which airline will carry it. The destination country may also have its own rules for certain products, such as food or cosmetics, which the receiver will need to meet at clearance.

What does not go: dangerous goods that airlines will not carry, and anything the destination country prohibits. If you are not sure where your product falls, describe it when you ask for a quote and we will tell you.

How it works, step by step

1. Tell us what you are shipping. What the goods are, roughly how much they weigh, their dimensions, which country they are going to and who is receiving them. With that, we give you a preliminary quote.
2. Deliver the cargo to one of our offices, in Medellín or Bogotá, or by appointment to our drop-off point in Cartagena. We receive cargo only there: there is no national pickup. If your supplier is in another city, they send it to the closest of the three with a domestic carrier. On arrival the cargo is weighed and measured properly, and the quote becomes firm. We never skip this step: an eyeball estimate almost always falls short, and we would rather the number you are quoted be the number you pay.
3. We prepare the outbound documentation with your details and the receiver’s, and handle the simplified customs procedure in Colombia.
4. The cargo is packed as air freight. Consolidated, palletised where it makes sense, reinforced and labelled. What leaves well packed arrives well.
5. Shipment and notice. When the cargo departs, you receive the tracking information, and we tell the receiver what they will need to collect it at the destination airport.
6. Clearance at destination. The receiver, or their customs broker, clears the goods. The cargo enters declared and formal, available to the customs authority of that country.

What happens at the destination airport

This is the point worth understanding from the start, because it is exactly what makes this route cheaper: the cargo is delivered at the airport, not at the door.

The service runs under CIP terms: transport and insurance are covered up to the destination airport, so you know from day one where our responsibility ends and the receiver’s begins. From there, the receiver has to clear the goods through customs. Depending on the country and the product, that means a customs entry and, often, import duties or taxes that the receiver pays.

For shipments into the United States, most receivers work with a licensed customs broker who files the entry on their behalf. Since the US suspended the low-value (de minimis) exemption in 2025, commercial shipments of any value need a proper entry and may owe duties, so it is worth having a broker lined up before the cargo lands. If you want the full picture from the US side, read how to import from Colombia to the US.

Before we ship, we tell you what the receiver will need. And in some countries we work with strategic allies who can handle clearance and delivery beyond the airport; if your case needs it, we review it when we quote.

When this isn’t the right option

Courier Freight is not the answer to every shipment, and it is better to know that before you ask:

• Under 100 kilos. Use international courier. It is more practical, it delivers to the door, and in that range there is no saving that justifies the change.
• The buyer abroad is going to pay through us. Then what you need is an export through the international trading company, with the operation under Excolbi’s name and an official invoice. It is a different service with different advantages; see export from Colombia.
• You need it at the door, with no one to clear it. If the receiver cannot or will not handle clearance at the airport, this route will cause friction unless we arrange an ally at destination. Say so when you ask for a quote.
• Very large volume and no urgency. Past a certain tonnage, ocean freight is worth a look. We will tell you if your case is there. Our guide to shipping from Colombia to the US compares courier, air cargo and ocean side by side.

What we need to quote

Four pieces of information:

1. What the goods are. A plain description is enough: “women’s jeans and blouses”, “an industrial embroidery machine”, “motorcycle spare parts”.
2. Weight and dimensions. Approximate is fine; we confirm them when the cargo reaches our office.
3. Destination country and city, so we know which airport it goes to.
4. Who receives it: a company or an individual, and whether they already work with a customs broker.

With that, we send you a broken-down cost that separates what is paid in Colombia from what may be charged at destination, so there are no surprises at the airport.

The advice costs nothing. If, after looking at your case, the best route turns out not to be this one, we tell you, and we tell you which one is. Get a quote with your cargo details, or message an adviser on WhatsApp and send the same four facts. For more guides in English, visit the Excolbi blog.