The scientifically-based classification of costs provides the formation of relevant information about the size, structure and content of the organization’s costs. The need to classify freight forwarding costs is due to the requirements of searching for reserves to minimize the costs of selling products (services). Increasing the cost-effectiveness is the most important management task. The classification of freight forwarding costs makes it possible to identify unproductive expenses in their structure and develop a system of management measures to minimize them, which will lead to an increase in profit and profitability. The existing methodological approaches to the management accounting of freight forwarding costs do not allow us to form a single scientifically based classification of these costs, to identify reserves for their reduction in the future. In this regard, the purpose of the article is to study the theoretical foundations of the classification of freight forwarding costs as an object of management accounting, identify the main problematic issues of cost classification and make proposals for its improvement. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study was the publications of Russian and foreign specialists in the field of management accounting organization. The main research methods used in writing the work were the method of theoretical system analysis and the monographic (descriptive) method.