Interview Record: A 20-Year-Old Freight Forwarder Talks About the Pitfalls of Air Freight to Dubai - 2
"When I ship air freight to Dubai, I first quote a low price. But once the goods arrive at our warehouse, things change. Suddenly, I tell the customer they need to pay an extra service fee. If they still want me to ship the goods, they have to agree to the new price. If not, they have to come pick up the goods themselves. There are so many peers who do this kind of thing."
"As people say nowadays, there aren't enough scammers in China. When it comes to air freight to Dubai, as long as you dare to quote a low price, there will definitely be people who dare to use your service and try cooperating with you. There are just too many people waiting to be scammed."
"There are also those who make profits by secretly changing the cargo dimensions. Light cargo is charged by volume, but after receiving the goods, they change the dimensions without permission. Suppose the cargo is 3 cubic meters. When they measure it, they play tricks with the dimensions—like measuring diagonally, or not showing you the measurement photos at all. After measuring, they tell you it's 3.25 or 3.3 cubic meters. The difference in volume is their profit."
"Because air freight has weight ratio requirements. Sometimes, if a plane has a lot of passengers and luggage, the airline needs heavy cargo to balance the plane. Planes need a certain take-off weight; if there are too many light goods, they can't achieve the optimal loading. So for airlines, the heavier the cargo, the cheaper the price."
"Taking on more than they can handle. Actually, this is a kind of marketing talk, and it's understandable—they just want to get the goods first. But the key problem is that they clearly don't have the capability. They're just a small freight forwarder with 7 or 8 people in an urban village, but they still take on more than they can manage."
"Every company has different scales and resources. They clearly can't handle the goods, but they still take them all. First, they let the customer pay the freight, but then the follow-up service is a mess. Some customers' goods are for exhibitions or need to meet delivery deadlines, so they have strict time requirements. But the freight forwarder can't meet them at all. In the end, just to save a little money, the customer's order is delayed, and they can't explain it to their own clients."
"We don't do these things. These are just small tricks that small freight forwarders use to make quick money, only caring about immediate interests. Have you ever seen a large-scale freight forwarder do this? Like us, DL International Logistics, we've been doing air freight to Dubai for so many years, and 80% of our customers have placed repeat orders. Now we have nearly 100 employees. We're running a real business—we bought the entire 8th floor of Block B, Rongde Times Square in Longgang District outright. Can you develop to this level by making quick money from immediate interests?"
"For our dedicated air freight to Dubai service, we bought 20 pallet positions in one go and paid for a full year in advance. How many companies do you think can do that? Not many around. That's why I say we're one of the top 5—this is the reason. This is real money; we paid it before even starting the work. With strength, we can take big project goods. We once helped Huawei ship electronic products worth 40 million yuan. Huawei has already paved the way for you—if Huawei trusts our freight forwarding company, what else do you have to worry about?"