FAQ

LEMAN was founded in 1900 in Copenhagen, Denmark, by Paul Lehmann. At the time, Paul Lehmann had a sharp local focus on his community but also an industrial mindset. In 1920, our founder, Paul Lehmann, published the book “Guidance in Freight Forwarding”, which served as the basis for the General Regulations of the Nordic Freight Forwarders’ Association. LEMAN expanded its reach and operations throughout Europe, and in 1971, LEMAN established operations in the USA.

Today, LEMAN is a global freight forwarder, proudly driven by its 800+ people across the world, focusing on delivering personal care and quality transport and logistics services. Read more about LEMAN here.

Everything we do at LEMAN springs from our 3 guiding lights: Respect – Quality – Commitment.

Respect is not just lip service; we value every handshake, email, and cargo load, and we treat every interaction as a reinforcement of a relationship—not just a transaction.

Quality: We know the devil is in the details and we sweat the small stuff so you don’t have to. Quality for us is the endless grind behind the scenes, ensuring that every cargo load moves seamlessly from A to B.

Commitment: To us, it is the easy promise to go the extra mile and the harder promise to be real when challenges arise. We won’t pretend logistics is smooth sailing, but we are committing to navigating the rough waters with you and finding solutions when others see dead ends.

Read more about our values here.

As a global freight forwarder, LEMAN specializes in full logistics and supply chain solutions across the entire world and every available mode of transport.

LEMAN offers services in logistics, project transport, warehousing, customs, insurance, repack, labelling, last-mile delivery, and value chain optimisation. We are active in road, air, and ocean transport and offer additional sustainable solutions for all three.

Every single offer at LEMAN is tailor-made and carries years of experience in segments with special transport needs such as pharmaceuticals and healthcare, lifestyle, and retail and fashion products.

LEMAN also offers contract logistics, building long and trusting relationships and relieving customers from the hustle of searching for different solutions for every cargo load.

Finally, customers at LEMAN can enjoy a sophisticated technology infrastructure, with instant Track & Trace and a wide range of connectivity to your existing systems.

Simply put, LEMAN has a face and you have a face at LEMAN. What tells LEMAN apart from other logistics vendors is our size—which is, if we dare say so ourselves, right:

LEMAN is big enough to rise to any logistics challenge, no matter how close or far, or how particular the cargo is—you name it, we’ve transported it. At the same time, LEMAN is not that big to have a machine of never-ending incoming requests to lose track of. We have a steady roll of loyal customers and each of them has their own contact person at LEMAN.

And speaking of— we pay extra attention to our people and our work environment so that each of us is at our fittest and most focused, ready to give it our best every single day—at work and outside of it. So, when you talk with LEMAN people, you are not talking to a cog in a machine; you are talking to a valued colleague. Read more about our services here.

LEMAN is committed to reducing our environmental footprint through initiatives such as optimising route planning, investing in eco-friendly vehicles, solar cells, and offering carbon insetting options to our customers. Read more here.

We rigorously adhere to all local and international environmental regulations and continuously monitor our operations to implement best practices in sustainability. You can read more about LEMAN’s sustainability commitments and governance in our latest sustainability report.

You can always check the carbon footprint of your shipping for free with the carbon footprint report in yourLEMAN! This report can be freely used for sustainability reporting purposes as well as monitoring your company’s emissions.

LEMAN provides several digital touchpoints for customers, including our yourLEMAN portal for online booking and tracking, EDI, and API integrations for seamless data exchange. Read more about connectivity.

We’re exploring efficiency opportunities with AI and are already running pilot programmes. Our team is on top of new technological developments and assesses them continuously for a right fit for our operations.

Yes! yourLEMAN use secure authentication methods provided by Microsoft. In addition, yourLEMAN is continuously updated with stability and security improvements.

You sure can! LEMAN is able to provide many standard integration possibilities within EDI and API so that you can avoid manual tasks by connecting our ERP to our systems. Our EDI solutions support a wide range of formats, and our easy-to-read API documentation allows for fast and easy integration via web protocol. Find out more on our Connectivity page.

First of all, you can access the Track & Trace function anywhere on the LEMAN website by clicking on the red icon at the bottom left. This solution is available to everyone who is in possession of a LEMAN booking number and can be shared with business partners and customers if needed. For more detailed tracking options and extended information on bookings, we recommend using our digital platform, yourLEMAN. With yourLEMAN, you can get an overview of your bookings, invoices and documents in a fast-performing website designed for user-friendliness and stability.

LEMAN is currently implementing several AI solutions for both internal and for customer use. Already now, our operation is working with AI tools, that enhance quality and increase efficiency, when it comes to creating and managing bookings. The first customer solutions involving AI are also in progress right now and we expect them to be available within the near future.

Freight forwarding is the profession and service of managing the transport of goods. Freight forwarders do not physically move the cargo; they coordinate the logistics part of the supply chain by acting as intermediaries between senders and carriers to ensure timely delivery.

The world of freight forwarding includes everything that comes with cargo transport: Documentation, booking space in carriers, customs clearance and import/export requirements, warehousing, and cost optimisation.

Freight forwarding refers to managing the services involved in the transport of goods. Logistics is the larger sphere where freight forwarding fits in. Apart from cargo transport, logistics also includes everything that goes before and after the transport, such as inventory management, orders and purchasing, and may also include the direct transport of cargo. So in short, freight forwarding is the specialised part of logistics that focuses on transporting goods from A to B – and everything in between.

A bill of lading (or BOL or B/L) is a document issued by the freight forwarder to the customer that includes all the information relevant to the shipment. A BOL usually includes a receipt of goods, the terms of transport between the customer and the freight forwarder, a title used to claim goods upon arrival as well as other key information such as sender and receiver names and addresses, carrier details, cargo description, pick up and delivery locations, payment terms, and tracking number.
In short, a bill of lading is the ID document of the shipment, necessary to the sender, the receiver, customs, and shipping companies alike. Browse more logistics terms in our glossary.

Drayage is a short-distance transport of goods, usually between two intermediary points in intermodal transport, e.g., between the port and the warehouse. Drayage is a smaller part of the overall trip between A to B that may require some special transport needs. Browse more logistics terms in our glossary.

Incoterms stands for International Commercial Terms and it outlines the responsibilities between buyers and sellers in international freight forwarding. Incoterms are globally applicable and outline who pays for what (but not when or how), who is responsible for what part, and how this responsibility is transferred between parties. Browse more logistics terms in our glossary.