Shipping From China To UAE: Don't Pick The Wrong Freight Forwarder For Over-Length Cargo

Shipping from China to UAE. How do you actually ship over-size cargo? Especially cargo that is 6 or 7 meters long. There are too many traps.

Mr. Lin works in oil equipment. His customer in UAE is developing a new oil well and needed two heavy drill pipes fast for testing.

Each pipe is 6.8 meters long, 168 mm in outer diameter, and 340 kg. Total gross weight is over 700 kg. Packed in wooden boxes. The wooden box size is 7.0 meters long, 0.4 meters wide, and 0.4 meters high.

The weight is not the biggest problem. The length is. A normal passenger plane belly hold usually cannot take it. A main-deck pallet on a freighter is usually just over 3 meters. To load 6.8 meters, you may need diagonal loading, extra securing, and airline special approval.

Mr. Lin often shipped by sea to UAE before. He is not a newbie in logistics. But this time the customer was in a hurry. So he found a forwarder in a UAE logistics group that looked okay.

The forwarder said yes right away. They said over-length cargo was no problem. They had many channels and enough pallets. Mr. Lin asked, can you ship 6.8 meters? The forwarder said yes, we do it all the time.

Mr. Lin wanted to visit them, but he was tight on time, and he thought he knew logistics, so he did not go. The cargo was sent to the warehouse the forwarder named. Then things went wrong.

First, they said it was waiting for space. Then they said the airline made a last-minute change. Then they said the pallet could not be booked, so wait more. More than ten days passed. The cargo stayed in the warehouse. The customer could not wait for the test. The phone kept ringing. Mr. Lin then knew this forwarder just took the order first and tried to figure it out later.

This is a classic case of hard-accepting over-size cargo. Many small forwarders have no freighter pallets and no experience with over-length cargo. But to get the order, they say yes first. They think they can just sell the cargo to someone else in the market.

But over-length cargo is not normal cargo. Passenger plane belly hold is not possible. Main-deck pallets on freighters need special arrangement. You may need diagonal loading, securing, and special approval. Without real resources for over-size air cargo, these operations are almost impossible.

So once the cargo enters the warehouse, all they can do is delay. The forwarder gets worried too, but time is tight. If they are not lucky, they really cannot move it.

I told Mr. Lin: for air cargo shipping from China to UAE, with over-size cargo, you must hold on to one thing. The forwarder must be reliable first. Then look at the price.

How do you find a reliable one? First, on the origin side, check if they really specialize in over-size air cargo shipping from China to UAE. Don't just listen. Look at their past shipping documents, especially over-length cases. You can even check customs inspection data. That cannot be faked.

Second, for over-length cargo, ask clearly: What is the longest side? Can it go on a freighter? What is the pallet size? What is the door size? Does it need special loading? Do you have successful cases?

Take our company for example. This is not an ad. It is to show you what professional over-size cargo handling looks like.

We were founded in 1998. We have done this for more than 20 years. We focus on over-size air cargo for shipping from China to UAE. We lease pallets directly from airlines. We decide what cargo goes on them.

For something 6.8 meters long, we have main-deck freighter pallets. We can do diagonal loading, securing, and coordinate airline special approval. Normal forwarders can only go back to the market and look for released pallets. For over-length cargo, they basically have no chance.

I showed Mr. Lin our past air cargo documents for UAE, including over-length operation records. We also talked about the loading details for the 6.8-meter drill pipes. He was satisfied and arranged the cargo to enter the warehouse.