Air Freight to Middle East: How DL Logistics Rescued a Shipment from a Low-Cost Forwarder
Saleh had 200 cartons of electronic products to ship via air freight to Middle East, and he entrusted them to a freight forwarder promoting "super low-cost air freight." Their website was filled with eye-catching ads like "air freight to Middle East, delivered in 3-5 days" and "30% lower than market rates." Saleh was hesitant at first. He did some research and compared options, but eventually, the low price was too tempting to resist.
Things went smoothly at the beginning. Saleh reminded the forwarder that electronic products are sensitive goods and asked if they had experience handling them. The agent assured him: "We specialize in air freight to Middle East. We know all about items with batteries!"
But then, the forwarder made a mistake: they wrote the product model as GRID R5000 instead of the correct GRID PRO R5000. The mismatched model number triggered a customs inspection. The shipment was forced to undergo a physical check, and customs demanded 11 different documents, citing "suspicion of carrying dangerous goods." The forwarder panicked and contacted Saleh, asking him to provide the documents. The entire process caused a 3-day delay, plus extra storage and late fees.
I told Saleh this is a classic example of what can happen when you choose a small, low-cost forwarder. Anyone can make attractive promises; the key is knowing how to tell who can actually deliver. Only capable forwarders can truly keep their word. For example, our company, DL, has been in the industry for 27 years. We secure 20 pallet spaces weekly across two major airlines, with capacity ten times that of many competitors. We have the strength to deliver on our promises.
This time, Saleh had another 200 cartons of electronic products for air freight to Middle East. After carefully weighing the pros and cons, he understood that without knowing the other party well, a quoted contract is just a piece of paper. After Saleh learned about our company—that we have our own logistics fleet domestically and, more importantly, priority clearance channels at the destination port in the UAE—he decided to entrust these 200 cartons to us. While other forwarders might need 2-3 days to clear customs, we can often do it in just 2 hours.
In this business, it's okay if you don't know everything—what's dangerous is having "a little knowledge." If I don't understand something, I simply won't take the job. But some people claim to know everything, yet miss critical details, and that's when problems are likely to occur. This is a common issue with small forwarders. The owner rents an office, hires a few people, and starts operations. To attract more orders, they plaster every attractive ad slogan they can think of, just to get the business first.
It usually boils down to two main points: low price and fast delivery. Small forwarders dare to offer prices 30% below market rates because they rely on renting everything. If they don’t have space, they look for it on the market. If they don’t have a customs team at the destination, they resell the shipment to a larger forwarder. Even if they manage to complete such a low-priced shipment, there’s little to no profit—and accordingly, service suffers.
We have an Annual Thousand-Pallet Framework Agreement with the airlines, meaning we decide which goods fill our pallet spaces. I helped Saleh secure space for two days later and provided the customs clearance documents. This type of cargo is our specialty; we handle it with ease. On the third day, after the goods arrived in the UAE, our clearance team had the documents ready in advance. Within hours, the shipment was cleared and picked up to our overseas warehouse.
When it comes to customs clearance, we have strong connections with many local clearance and logistics resources. Even many competitors come to us for help with sensitive goods or urgent orders. Saleh’s 200 cartons were loaded onto a truck and dispatched for delivery that same afternoon. It may seem straightforward, but many small forwarders lack such resources—they often have to transfer shipments to other agents, which means they can’t control delivery timelines. By evening, the 200 cartons were successfully delivered to Saleh’s designated warehouse. He was satisfied and gave us a thumbs up.