Two generations in this trade

Marine Forwarding Company was founded in 1949. Marshall V. Slawson entered the forwarding business in June 1953 with W.O. Smith & Company, and seventeen years later he was their Vice President. In 1971 he opened that parent company's first Virginia office, and built it on kindness, honesty and an analytical mind that people in this port still talk about.

His daughter, Lana A. Ponsonby, worked full time and attended college straight after graduation. She ran the Virginia office for twenty years and became Vice President in 2001. In 2015 she opened Marine Forwarding Company of Virginia.

Between her father's fifty-one years in the trade and her own thirty-six, the training behind this office reaches back to 1953. The company itself is younger than that, and we say so instead of rounding it up.

Our precise standing

We work as international freight forwarders and customs clearinghouse agents. Our licensed customs broker agent transacts the customs business that requires a licence under 19 CFR Part 111.

We state it that way because the distinction holds legal weight and much of the industry blurs it. Your service stays the same. The description stays accurate.

Hazardous materials

Expertise in hazardous materials lets us handle chemical exporters and importers, where the packing, marking and declaration have to match the mode and the destination. Tell us about a UN number at booking, not at the cut-off.

The way we work

Employees and customers here have done business together since the early 1950s. Customers are treated as family, and confidential details are handled as such on each call.

Training, consultation and problem resolution are Lana's specialty, passed down through two generations of this trade. We give straightforward solutions to complex logistical problems, which is what customers have called us a one stop shop for.

"Experience and knowledge lightens the voyage."