Case 1
How Much Does Cargo Dimension Accuracy Affect the Timeliness of Air Freight to Dubai?
How much does the accuracy of cargo dimensions affect air freight to Dubai? It can be said that it directly affects the speed, cost and safety of air freight. Why are dimensions so important? Because the cargo hold of an airplane is valuable in measurement, and space is equal to money, especially for air freight to Dubai.
What are the common problems?
First, problems in booking space. If the dimensions are inaccurate, it is easy to lead to the booked space being either not enough to load, or the actual dimensions being too large, and the airline will increase the price temporarily, which increases the cost.
Second, the palletizing efficiency will be very low. If the actual dimensions are larger than the declared ones, even just a little, it may cause the goods to not fit into the scheduled flight. You either wait for the next flight, or disassemble and replace the pallet, and finally the goods are left behind. Watching others' goods fly away, such a loss is very, very big.
Air freight to Dubai is an efficient chain linked closely together. Among all links such as booking, security check, palletizing, loading, customs clearance and delivery, dimensions must be the core basic data. Its accuracy is directly related to the lifeline of timeliness. If the dimensions are inaccurate, it is very easy to push up costs and increase the probability of damage and customs clearance risks. In the end, it harms the profit of the shipper and the reputation of the customer.
So, it seems that all freight forwarders will measure dimensions, but freight forwarders with standardized operations can systematically avoid risks, while ordinary freight forwarders may only "perform the measurement action" but cannot guarantee reliable results, leading to a series of problems.
Measurement loopholes that ordinary freight forwarders may have include using ordinary tape measures instead of laser measuring instruments, especially for irregular goods, the error can reach 3-5cm; due to lack of professionalism, ignoring the expanded dimensions of goods after palletizing, it should be noted that pallets, stretch film, strapping, etc. will all increase the volume; not considering the deformation of goods due to extrusion after loading, and so on.
Others only measure individual goods before loading them into containers at the factory, but do not re-verify the overall dimensions after final palletizing and packing. And this is the actual basis for the airline's charging. Some freight forwarders do try their best, but in the wrong direction. To meet the customer's demand of "saving freight", they deliberately underdeclare the dimensions, but end up making things worse.
Like us DL, who handle a large volume of goods for air freight to middle east and have rich experience, we operate in a standardized way and can eliminate such mistakes in the bud. In other words, our advantage lies not only in the measurement itself, but also in embedding accurate dimension data into the entire process.
For example, in the booking link, what we provide to the airline is "real data + buffer margin" to ensure that the space matches. For example, if the actual volume is 5.8m³, we book the space according to 6m³.
In the palletizing design, we plan in advance and customize the palletizing plan according to the cargo dimensions. For example, avoiding the cabin door restricted area can avoid temporary pallet disassembly.
There is also a risk early warning plan. If the cargo dimensions are close to the critical value, such as exceeding 2.6m requiring a special aircraft model, we will coordinate resources in advance to prepare for a rainy day.
More importantly, we have a trust endorsement from the airline. Because we are a freight forwarder that has long provided accurate data, even when there is a dispute over a small error, we are more likely to obtain the airline's understanding. This is definitely a technical barrier generated by the scale effect, which is not something that ordinary small freight forwarders can do.
In other words, when sending air freight to Dubai, you must choose a reliable partner like us DL Logistics. Cooperating with an experienced and standardized air freight to Dubai provider, we can provide professional measurement guidance, strictly check the palletizing and customs declaration links, and use experience to avoid dimension risks.【learn more】
Case 2
What's the Difference Between Freight Forwarders With and Without Fixed Space in Air Freight to Middle East?
What's the difference between freight forwarders that have fixed space and those that don't in air freight to middle east services?
First, let's talk about fixed space. It's a long-term contract signed between an airline, a charter agent and a designated freight forwarder. The airline reserves a sufficient number of spaces for the freight forwarder on specific flights. Its core features are as follows:
First, it has high certainty. Whether the market is in the off-season or peak season, or whether the space is tight or not, the freight forwarder can ensure that it gets the number of spaces agreed in the contract. This is its biggest advantage.
Second, it has priority. In case of special situations such as flight delays or cancellations, freight forwarders with fixed space usually have their goods prioritized on subsequent flights.
Third, it has high thresholds. Because airlines usually only sign fixed space contracts with large, reputable freight forwarders that have sufficient cargo volume. The freight forwarder must guarantee a minimum cargo volume. Even if the cargo volume is insufficient, it still needs to pay the corresponding fees. Relatively speaking, the cost is high and the risk is relatively large.
Take our company DL Logistics as an example. We operate air freight to middle east dedicated lines and have bought out 20 weekly pallets from 2 major airlines, with sufficient capacity. What does 20 pallets mean? For example, other better freight forwarders only have about 2 or 3 pallets per week. Our capacity is 10 times that of them. No wonder we are truly one of the top 5 freight forwarders in air freight to middle east. Even Huawei's exhibition goods are designated to be transported by us via air freight. You know, big companies like Huawei are very strict when choosing freight forwarders. The fact that they chose us fully shows our strength in the air freight industry.
Now let's look at non-fixed space. Usually, freight forwarders temporarily apply for space from airlines or sales agents according to the needs of each shipment or batch of goods. Whether they can book the space and how many spaces they can get depend on the market supply and demand at the time of booking.
Its core features are as follows: First, high uncertainty. The biggest disadvantage is that the space cannot be guaranteed. Especially in the peak season of air freight to middle east, the capacity of specific popular routes will definitely be very tight.
Second, the price fluctuates greatly. The freight rate follows the market and fluctuates sharply. In the off-season, its price may be similar to ours, but in the peak season, the price may soar continuously. That is to say, the cost is difficult to control and the fluctuation range is very large.
Third, the priority is low. When space is tight, non-fixed space goods are usually the first to be left behind. So its risk is much higher than that of goods with fixed space.
What I said above is not the key. The key is that in the air freight to middle east market, even small freight forwarders with 3 or 5 people in urban villages advertise loudly on various platforms, with better words than mine. In the end, I become the most plain and unnoticed freight forwarder. So for foreign trade shippers going overseas, when they have goods transportation needs, they must keep their eyes open and select reliable, large-scale freight forwarders like us that can meet their transportation requirements.【learn more】
Case 3
Interview Transcript: A 20-Year Freight Forwarder Talks About the Pitfalls of Air Freight to Dubai - 1
They raise prices temporarily after receiving the goods. For example, the market price is 20 yuan per kilogram, some freight forwarders quote 18 yuan per kilogram. Customers choose them for the lower price, and after the goods are sent to the designated warehouse, the freight forwarders raise the price right away. The reason is simple: they say the price for air freight to Dubai is not locked until the goods depart, and market fluctuations are normal. They’ll tell you there’s nothing they can do because the airline has updated the price before the flight takes off. You have no words to say, and in fact, they’ve already dug a pit waiting for you here.
So do you send the goods or not? If you send them, you’ll pay 5 yuan more per kilogram than the market price. If you don’t, you can’t afford the delay of getting the goods back and finding a new freight forwarder. Most customers just pay the money obediently. These freight forwarders are just doing a one-time deal and don’t expect you to come back for repeat business.
When doing air freight to Dubai, many peers also have tricks for shipping sensitive goods. Actually, the goods have no other problems except being sensitive ones. But just because they’re sensitive goods, some freight forwarders will collude with someone to trick the customer, saying the goods are inspected by customs and a fixing fee of several thousand or even ten to twenty thousand yuan is needed. Will you pay it or not?
Customers are in a hurry for the goods, so they have to pay the money. But in fact, nothing unusual has happened. It’s just a self-directed show under the pretext of sensitive goods. They just grasp the customers' psychology, because everyone knows it’s not easy to ship sensitive goods and problems often occur. But in reality, there’s really no problem with the shipment; it’s just the freight forwarder digging a pit for you to fall into.
Airlines set prices based on market fluctuations, but there’s a key point here. For example, if the price goes up today, it won’t apply to tomorrow’s shipments, only the day after tomorrow’s. But some small freight forwarders take advantage of this. Clearly, the price rise is for the day after tomorrow, but they insist it starts tomorrow and demand you make up the price difference. The goods are already in their hands, so do you pay or not?
So it’s extremely hard to find a reliable freight forwarder for air freight to Dubai. There are pitfalls everywhere, and even we step into them sometimes. Why? Because the market is constantly fluctuating and changing. Fortunately, we don’t be greedy, so the pits we step into are all small ones.
The reason why this industry is a mixed bag of good and bad players is that there are too many practitioners in the market. Take Shenzhen for example. There are about 50,000 to 60,000 freight forwarder companies here. If each small and micro company has a dozen employees, the total number of practitioners is 500,000 to 600,000 or even over a million, among which tens of thousands are doing air freight to Dubai. It’s simply impossible to regulate the professional quality of all these people. Many of them are like this: if you ask them about professional knowledge, they know nothing about it. They only know how to run business from door to door, receive goods, promise the moon and agree to everything, and deal with the rest after getting the goods.
It’s not impossible to find a reliable freight forwarder for air freight to Dubai, but you need to remember one thing: never choose a freight forwarder whose quote is obviously lower than the market price. This market is mature and transparent enough, and all quotes are more or less the same, with a maximum difference of 5% up or down. Such an unrealistically low price is impossible, and there must be something fishy about it. There is definitely a pit waiting for you in some link.
If the prices are similar, you need to check the actual situation of the freight forwarder company. You can just ask them directly: what are your advantages in doing air freight to Dubai? We get asked this question a lot too. And we’ll tell the customers straight up: DL Logistics has made an exclusive booking of 20 pallet spaces every week with two major airlines. You may think it’s no big deal and that all companies do this. But let me tell you, other freight forwarder companies that do Dubai dedicated lines, even the better ones, only book 2 or 3 pallet spaces every week. Our shipping capacity is 10 times that of theirs.
It’s like we’re one of the permanent members of the UN Security Council. People who don’t understand won’t get it, but those who do will give a thumbs-up. You need to know that we still have to pay for the exclusive booking even if there are no goods to ship, so it takes real financial strength to do this. In fact, there are many powerful freight forwarder companies. Why don’t they book so many pallet spaces? The reason is simple: they don’t have such a large shipping volume. We have a huge shipping volume, and all links are connected very smoothly. Our scale advantage not only reduces costs but also guarantees the delivery time. If you want to avoid delays in air freight to Dubai, you need to find a freight forwarder company with real scale resources and technical barriers like us.【learn more】
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