The Crucial Last Mile for Air Freight to UAE: DL Logistics' 100+ Local Team Ensures Timely Delivery
Some friends on the platform frankly said: After doing cross-border business for a few months, they had several bad experiences with freight forwarders. At first, they only chose the cheapest ones, but those turned out to be shell companies. Once the goods reached customs, there were no further updates. Local delivery was a total mess—either the goods were damaged or lost.
This is a common mistake newcomers make when choosing a freight forwarder: they only compare prices and pick the cheapest one. The problem is, small forwarders don’t have the strength to control local customs clearance and delivery resources in the UAE. They just pass the order to their upstream agents and make a price difference.
The truth is, thousands of freight forwarders offer air freight to UAE. All advertise low prices and fast timelines, but the actual service standards vary drastically in the UAE.
The key tip for choosing a freight forwarder for air freight to UAE is to check their "last mile" delivery efficiency at the destination. Small forwarders sell flights; big forwarders sell local ground services. As long as you act early and seize the right time, almost any forwarder (big or small) can book a shipment space—that’s where it’s quite "equal". But the last mile delivery at the destination isn’t something you can control freely. It all depends on the forwarder’s local resource control, which is built with real financial investment.
Take our company for example: Our local delivery team in the UAE has over 20 years of experience, with more than 50 trucks and hundreds of employees. For urgent goods that ordinary forwarders take 2-3 days to deliver, we use special vehicles to pick up the goods directly from the customs supervised warehouse—we don’t even go through the overseas warehouse. We deliver straight to the customer’s warehouse, and it only takes a few hours.
The main disadvantages of ordinary forwarders in this link are: no priority for cargo pickup—they have to queue up and make appointments to pick up goods from the airport. During peak pickup periods, they can only watch as goods pile up in the warehouse and can’t be retrieved. Their delivery often lets you down too: the local delivery companies they cooperate with are small logistics firms with only 3-5 people, and some don’t even have their own vehicles. After the goods arrive at the overseas warehouse, it takes 3-4 days or even longer to deliver them to the destination.
Having operated air freight to UAE for so many years, we have long established a VIP channel with airport ground handling services—no need to queue. As soon as the flight lands, we start pallet unloading and sorting at the same time. We use the reserved channel to load the goods directly onto trucks for delivery. For urgent orders, we offer point-to-point direct delivery with special vehicles. After loading from the supervised warehouse, we bypass distribution and transshipment (no overseas warehouse stop) and can deliver the goods to the customer within hours.
DL Logistics is one of the top 5 companies for air freight to middle east. We have bought out 20 pallets per week from 2 major airlines. We have a priority channel for customs clearance at UAE air ports, allowing us to skip the line for cargo pickup. The local logistics team answers the phone 24/7—even at 2 AM. If we deliver in the morning, the goods arrive at noon; if we deliver at noon, they arrive in the afternoon. We truly deserve to be one of the top 5.
DL's air freight to middle east—everyone who uses it says it's smooth.