How are transport intermediaries treated in ISIC Rev. 5?

Transport intermediaries in ISIC Rev. 5, published by the UN Statistics Division, are treated as arrangers who organise transport without themselves operating the vehicle, vessel or aircraft that moves people or goods. Freight forwarders, travel agents arranging transport, and brokers who book cargo space are examples of the pattern, where the intermediary arranges, consolidates or books, and another operator performs the movement. Rev. 5 gives intermediation clearer recognition, with new intermediation classes across the economy, and transport is one of the markets where arranging work is now more visible. Any code must be confirmed with the national statistical institute or business register that holds the record.

What does an intermediary actually do all day?

Transport intermediaries in ISIC Rev. 5, published by the UN Statistics Division, are arrangers who organise transport without themselves operating the vehicle, vessel or aircraft that moves people or goods. Their working day is spent booking, consolidating, coordinating, and tracking, while someone else drives, sails, or flies. Freight forwarders, travel agents arranging transport, and brokers who book cargo space are examples of the pattern, where the intermediary arranges, consolidates or books, and another operator performs the movement. Rev. 5 gives intermediation clearer recognition, with new intermediation classes across the economy, and transport is one of the markets where arranging work is now more visible.

The activities below on transport intermediaries are described in ISIC Rev. 5, published by the UN Statistics Division, as part of this grouping. Read the list as a set of examples of the kind of work included, not as a complete code list, since the full publication gives the authoritative detail.

Activity	Note
Freight forwarding and arranging cargo transport	Described in this grouping in ISIC Rev. 5
Arranging passenger travel and bookings	Described in this grouping in ISIC Rev. 5
Brokerage of transport capacity	Described in this grouping in ISIC Rev. 5
Intermediation without operating a transport vehicle	Described in this grouping in ISIC Rev. 5
Agency work for transport operators where described in Rev. 5	Described in this grouping in ISIC Rev. 5

A list or a table cannot capture every case, so an activity that is not listed here may still belong in the grouping if the full class description covers it, and a listed activity may need closer checking in a mixed business.

How do a forwarder and a shipping line divide one shipment?

A freight forwarder that books container space, arranges customs handling through partners and tracks a shipment illustrates intermediation. The forwarder takes a customer’s cargo details, finds space on a suitable sailing, books that space, coordinates documentation and partner handling at each end, and keeps the customer updated as the shipment moves. The forwarder’s staff may never touch the container, drive a lorry, or board a ship.

The shipping line that actually sails the container illustrates water freight transport, and the classification keeps the forwarder and the line distinct. The line operates the vessel, employs the crew, sets the sailing schedule, and carries the container across the sea. If the line stopped sailing, the forwarder would have nothing to book.

Travel arranging shows the same split on the passenger side. An agent who books seats, combines flights with onward travel, and issues tickets arranges a journey that airlines, rail operators, and coach firms then operate, while the operating carriers provide the seats, the vehicles, and the crews.

When does arranging stop and operating start?

Operating a lorry fleet, a ship or an aircraft is transport, not intermediation, even if the operator also takes bookings directly. The test is operation versus arranging: if the firm moves the goods or people itself, it is a transport operator, and if it only arranges that movement by others, it is an intermediary. Direct bookings do not change that test. An airline selling seats on its own website still operates the aircraft, and a shipping line taking bookings at its own desk still sails the vessel.

Mixed cases test the boundary hardest. A firm that both arranges shipments for others and operates some of its own lorries does both kinds of work, and a firm that starts as an agent and later buys vehicles changes its mix over time. Mixed cases are handled by a principal activity rule in statistical practice, and this guide does not apply that rule to any reader, because the rule needs data about the whole unit that a guide cannot see.

How should this guide be used by someone checking a business?

Start from the shipment or the journey, ask who moves it and who arranged it, and read both descriptions in the Rev. 5 publication before forming any view.

This guide will not settle the matter for any forwarder, agent, broker, or platform, and it is not meant to. It explains an intermediation pattern only, and it does not determine any reader’s code, principal activity, or registration. For a formal entry, confirm the position with the national statistical institute or business register that holds the record, using the UN Statistics Division classification detail and the ISIC Rev. 5 publication listed in the frontmatter as the sources for the code statements here.