In international freight forwarding, FAK means flat freight charges flat freight for all goods. For example, quotes for US lines are often separated by different product names, and FAK means that any product name can be applied.

FAK is mainly used for sea container liners. The basic principle of the flat rate is that the goods transported in the container are independent of the freight receivable. In other words, goods with the same voyage, regardless of the name, weight and value of the goods, will be charged a flat rate. The essence is that the carrier (shipping company) evenly distributes the expected total cost to each shipping container to obtain a basic average.

FAK’s form of international freight rates is logical in theory, as ships are loading and unloading containers at ports rather than cargo, and the containers occupy the same volume and area of ​​space – freight is calculated by space only. However, the use of uniform freight rates will have a negative impact on the transportation of low-value items, as it can be compensated from higher-rate items, no matter how difficult it is for low-rate items.

This may not be acceptable to owners of low-rate commodities. For example, container liner companies charge the same rates for owners of consignments of bottled water and bottled wine. While the owner of the bottled wine doesn’t care, the owner of a single bottle of water will refuse to accept the situation.

In the end, they were forced to charge different rates for the two commodities separately. Therefore, in most cases at present, the average interest rate actually divides the commodity into 5~7 interest rate grades.