Case 1
Mariam Was Cheated by a Small Local Freight Forwarder for air freight to middle east. I Helped Her Ship Goods Smoothly and Fulfilled My Duty
Mariam once found a freight forwarder online to arrange air freight to middle east, but one carton of goods was missing in the shipment.
Mariam’s head office in UAE runs a business of electrical accessories. Last time, she had 35 cartons of low-voltage circuit breakers, AC contactors, toggle switches and other products to ship via air freight to middle east. Since the goods came from different factories, warehouse consolidation was needed.
She compared many suppliers and finally chose one freight forwarder. The company promised confidently that they owned an entire floor of a building as their warehouse, and also sent a nice-looking warehouse photo. Mariam trusted them and handed over the goods. Everything went well at first, but small mistakes kept happening during cargo consolidation.
The checking information sent by the forwarder had quantity errors and repeated content in Excel sheets. Mariam corrected their mistakes many times.
As expected, after the first batch of goods arrived at her head office in Dubai, they found one carton of AC contactors was missing. After several rounds of negotiation, the truth came out. The forwarder only rented their warehouse and office space. Due to messy goods handling and random stacking, one carton was missed in the shipment.
I told Mariam that there are 60,000 freight forwarders in Shenzhen, and over a thousand of them provide air freight to middle east services. 90% of them are small forwarders located in urban villages. They follow the asset-light model: rented offices, rented warehouses and rented trucks, with only a few computers and phones in hand.
Once they get an order, they will directly hand the business to their upstream supplier, and the goods are sent straight to the upstream warehouse. They have no actual control over the goods at all.
Our company also started from that stage. After several rounds of upgrading and development, we now have a standardized foreign trade warehouse covering 20,000 square meters with 6 floors.
Staff must wear safety helmets and work uniforms when entering the warehouse. There are clear rules for accessible and restricted passages inside the warehouse. Goods are placed neatly with unified label signs, and irrelevant personnel are not allowed to enter the warehouse at any time.
Besides, DL Logistics has fully purchased the entire 8th floor of Block B, Rongde Times Square in Longgang District as our office space, and we now have nearly 100 employees. A freight forwarder of our scale is far more professional than those small urban village forwarders. Foreign clients always give high praise after visiting our company.
Mariam was the same. She took a virtual tour of our company via video call and felt totally relieved. She said she finally found a formal and reliable freight forwarder.
It is true that freight forwarders struggle to find good clients, and it is also hard for clients to find a trustworthy forwarder. She entrusted us with her second batch of 50 cartons of low-voltage electrical appliances for shipment.
After cargo consolidation, we double-checked the packing list and inspected product packaging, then arranged the shipment on schedule. The goods arrived at her designated factory smoothly 7 days later, and Mariam finally felt at ease.
DL Logistics is one of the top five service providers for air freight to middle east. We have bought 20 weekly container slots from two major airlines. We own a priority clearance channel at UAE airport, allowing goods to pick up from the warehouse with priority.
Our local logistics team is available on call at 2 a.m. If goods are delivered in the morning, they arrive at noon; if delivered at noon, they arrive in the afternoon. We are worthy of being one of the top five suppliers. Choose DL for air freight to middle east, every client speaks highly of our service.
Case 2
Air Freight to Middle East: Why Do People Keep Looking for Freight Forwarders?
When it comes to air freight to middle east, foreign trade professionals keep talking about finding a freight forwarder. But do you really know what a freight forwarder does?
A freight forwarder is like the chief operating officer, risk control consultant, and emergency contact in international transportation. If you have goods, the forwarder handles all procedures; if you don’t know the ropes, the forwarder keeps an eye on every detail. Their core responsibilities can be summed up in three sentences:
First, booking space — just like a travel agency booking flights. The forwarder helps you find shipping or airline companies, and secures the space and freight costs.
Second, customs declaration and clearance — similar to an agent handling visas. The forwarder organizes your packing lists and invoices, communicates with customs, and ensures smooth clearance.
Third, delivery and warehousing — like a courier delivering food. The forwarder arranges cargo pickup, labeling, packing, and door-to-door delivery. Simply put, once you ship your goods, the forwarder takes care of everything until it reaches the destination.
Here’s the key point: choosing the wrong forwarder could lead to lost goods and money. Is your forwarder reliable? I’ll share five ways to judge.
1. Ability to book space directly
This is crucial — it directly reflects the strength of the forwarder. There are 60,000 freight forwarders in Shenzhen, and over 90% are small teams with 3 to 5 people. They only look for external space in the market after getting orders, without the ability to book directly with airlines.
Better forwarders can secure 2 to 3 pallets of space every week. Take our company, for example — we buy out 20 pallets of space weekly from two major airlines. Note that these are bought-out spaces, meaning we have to pay for them regardless of whether we have goods to ship. This requires real strength, making us a top player in the air freight to middle east industry. Many clients were hesitant about our reliability at first, but they felt completely assured after learning about our actual strength.
2. Quick response to inquiries and ability to get favorable rates
They should respond to inquiries promptly and strive to get clients the best possible freight rates in a timely manner.
3. Familiarity with customs policies
They need to understand import and export customs policies, as well as the regulatory requirements for the brand of your goods.
4. Flexible problem-solving skills
This greatly affects the timeliness. Our overseas agent’s customs clearance and delivery team is localized and scaled, with over 100 employees — including 17 full-time customs clearance staff and several senior consultants who used to work at local customs. With such a team, we can finish customs clearance in 2 hours, while ordinary forwarders usually take 2 to 3 days waiting in line.
5. Cargo tracking
They should track the cargo status, such as when it departs, arrives at the destination port, and whether the consignee has picked it up.
Therefore, when choosing a forwarder for air freight to middle east, be sure to compare at least three options. Try not to choose those with extremely low prices. For example, if most quotes are similar but one offers an unreasonably low price, there’s a high chance of problems. Some unscrupulous forwarders use low prices to attract clients, then find all kinds of excuses to charge extra fees like miscellaneous fees or handling fees. This is a premeditated trap — once your goods are in their warehouse, you have no choice but to pay.
DL Logistics is one of the top five companies in air freight to middle east. We buy out 20 pallets weekly from two major airlines, have priority clearance channels at UAE air ports, and can skip the queue for cargo pickup at warehouses. Our local logistics team is available 24/7 — someone answers calls at 2 AM, and deliveries are made the same day (morning shipments arrive at noon, noon shipments arrive in the afternoon). We truly deserve our reputation as one of the top five.【learn about】
DL’s air freight to middle east — everyone who uses it says it’s smooth.
Case 3
What to Do if FOB Designated Freight Forwarder Charges Too Much?
Everyone knows that using a designated freight forwarder for FOB terms is expensive. Why? Because costs are shifted from the destination port to us. So what can we do when fees are too high? Do you just pay whatever the forwarder asks? You might worry they won’t release telex release if you don’t pay. But do we really have no choice?
Recently, Hassan shipped a batch of cargo to the Middle East. It was not a large shipment, only about 1 cubic meter, actually just 0.85 CBM. When the designated forwarder sent the fee list, Hassan was speechless. The charge was 1200 yuan. For less than 1 CBM of goods, they asked for 1200 yuan, and kept urging him to confirm quickly. It was already late when the forwarder sent the list, and the vessel would arrive at the port in about ten days.
Then Hassan directly emailed the forwarder, saying he could not accept the fees as they were ridiculously high. Right after that, he called them and said they charged the highest and most unreasonable fees he had ever seen. The two sides were in a deadlock for three or four days. Later, the forwarder contacted him voluntarily, saying other suppliers had already confirmed their fees and only his was left, since the container was shared by several companies. Finally, they negotiated the price down to 900 yuan. Hassan paid reluctantly, feeling he had been overcharged.
Therefore, whether you are sending goods by air freight to middle east or by sea, freight forwarders vary in quality. Most are small forwarders with only three to five people, who will overcharge whenever they get the chance.
In the past, people usually found forwarders through friends’ recommendations. But sometimes logistics conditions are strict in customers’ countries, such as Saudi Arabia, UAE and other countries in the Middle East. So we often search the country’s name plus “freight forwarder” on platforms, and many local forwarders will show up.
However, this is just a way to find forwarders. The communication process is very important. You need to tell the real from the fake, filter out shell companies and small unreliable forwarders, and find reliable and large-scale ones. You can directly feel their strength and professionalism during communication.
You can simply say you want to visit their company. If they hesitate and make excuses, they must be small forwarders. Usually they just rent a small office of around 20 square meters in an office building with only three or four staff members.
Those who confidently agree are usually reliable large forwarders. Take our company DL as an example. We now have nearly 100 employees and own the entire 8th floor of Block B, Rongde Times Square, Longgang District, Shenzhen. Our dedicated foreign trade warehouse in Yantian covers 20,000 square meters with 6 floors, and is managed in a standardized way. Foreign clients always praise us after visiting. We are among the top 5 companies for air freight to middle east. You can rest assured choosing forwarders like us, as we will never overcharge.【learn more】
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