Handling Dubai Air Freight Issues: Offloading And Customs Clearance
Anna has been our client for over three years. She has warehouses in Baiyun, Guangzhou and Longhua, Shenzhen. She specializes in trendy women’s clothing with very fast style updates. For hot items, she needs the quickest shipping because her buy-and-sell shops in Dubai are waiting to stock them. So she ships frequently – one or two shipments a week, each about 100–200 kg, sometimes up to 800–900 kg. In three years, I have handled at least 200 shipments for her.
That is the freight forwarding business – lots of messy stuff and things go wrong. We are like firefighters, always dealing with emergencies. With so many shipments, it is impossible for every one to go smoothly.
I remember one summer two years ago, Anna had a batch of dresses to send to Zayn Fashion in Deira, Dubai. Total 720 pieces, gross weight 460 kg, about 2 cubic meters. Those days Guangzhou was extremely hot – the tarmac temperature reached 43°C.
Airlines usually overbook. For example, if a flight can carry 45 tons, they will accept 55 tons, betting that someone will cancel last minute. If no one cancels, the later shipments get offloaded. Our shipment was number 31 on the loading list, but no one ahead canceled, so our goods were offloaded.
Anna was worried and asked me to find a solution quickly. I marked the shipment as “exception”. On the route of shipping from China to UAE, we have a block space agreement with the airline, but even during peak season there is almost no spare space – everyone fights for it. I kept refreshing the space status. Guess what? Around 3 PM, a pallet space was released because another trading company had document issues and canceled. I immediately locked that space, then told the warehouse to pull out the goods, re-weigh, re-label and palletize, and we managed to load it before the 7 PM cutoff. That flight landed in Dubai before 4:30 AM the next day, less than a day behind schedule – but at least Anna’s business was not affected, and we did not have to pay penalties.
Another time, over 300 hoodies were sent to a boutique in Al Quoz, Dubai. They landed at 5:30 AM Dubai time, but that day Dubai Customs was testing the new “FASAH” declaration system, and they randomly inspected many shipments – we got selected. The customs declaration only said “Garments”, which was too vague. Customs required detailed fabric composition and style, otherwise they would detain the goods for three days.
I contacted Anna and got a detailed packing list, specifying 80% cotton, 20% polyester, hooded, zip-front, individually packed in plastic. Anna had all the data ready and sent a PDF in less than ten minutes. I forwarded it to Dubai and submitted the new documents, along with our pre-inspection report that included net weight, gross weight, volume, and product photos per carton. The customs officer only opened one box, checked the documents, and released the goods on the spot.
For us, when we do shipping from China to UAE, these long-term clients are our top priority. They trust us, so we must give 100% effort to ensure their goods are shipped well.