When Looking for a Freight Forwarder for Air Freight to Middle East, Is a Freight Forwarder Just a Middleman?
Even many experienced professionals in Middle East foreign trade don't actually have a clear idea of what role a freight forwarder plays. To put it simply, we freight forwarders are just like Ctrip and Qunar.
For example, when you buy a flight ticket, you probably won't call the airline directly to book. One reason is that their ticket prices are definitely more expensive. Another reason is, say you need to leave the morning after tomorrow, you have to comprehensively evaluate the prices of various flights and your own schedule to finally decide which flight to buy. If you call the airlines directly, you might have to call three or four airlines, then make a list yourself to compare and choose the most suitable one.
Ctrip and Qunar handle all these things for you. Select the time and destination, and the platform will automatically list all the eligible flights with clear prices. You can judge which flight to choose in minutes.
What's important is that the prices on the platform are cheaper than if you call to ask yourself! Because the airlines have agreements with the platforms. For example, there are 300 seats in total, which are sold to Ctrip at a low price in a package of 100, 100 to Qunar, and 100 reserved for themselves, because there will be tour groups that contact the airlines directly. Even if Ctrip adds a profit, it's still lower than the retail price of the airline.
Now you get it. The only difference is that what we freight forwarders sell is not passenger tickets, but cargo space.
The above is just a concept, and it's enough to understand it, but this is not the key. When we really want to buy a flight ticket, why do some people like to use Ctrip while others like Qunar? This is the key to practical operation, because each platform has differences in service capabilities and prices.
Similarly, for air freight to Middle East, many people think that freight forwarders don't ship the goods themselves; they all buy pallet positions from airlines and then resell them. They think freight forwarders are just middlemen with the same services, so they just need to find the one with the lowest price. On the contrary, the actual situation is completely different. Freight forwarders vary in quality. The services of freight forwarders are not just booking space; there are many other links that require the in-depth participation of freight forwarders, such as booking space, security inspection, palletizing, loading, customs clearance, and delivery. It can be seen that booking space is just one link.
Among these, the links that greatly affect the timeliness are customs clearance and delivery. Customs clearance and delivery links are abroad, which mainly depend on the freight forwarder's ability to control local resources. Large-scale freight forwarders like us have a large volume of shipments, and our local customs clearance and delivery team is also large and professional. We have the ability to cooperate with local customs. For urgent goods, there's no need to queue. After the plane lands, we can start the process of unpacking pallets and distributing goods, which is beyond the reach of ordinary freight forwarders.
In the customs clearance link, we have a priority channel at the UAE airport. No appointment is needed, and the customs clearance process can be completed in 2 hours. Many ordinary freight forwarders can't do this; queuing for 2 or 3 days is common.
Therefore, for air freight to Middle East, it's very important to understand the role of freight forwarders. Only by finding a suitable and reliable freight forwarder can you avoid delaying the timeliness.
DL Logistics is one of the top five companies in air freight to Middle East. We have purchased 20 pallet positions per week from two major airlines. We have a priority customs clearance channel at the UAE airport, can skip the queue to pick up goods at the warehouse, have local logistics personnel available to answer calls at 2 a.m., and can deliver goods sent in the morning by noon and goods sent at noon by afternoon. It is truly one of the top five.
DL Air Freight to Middle East, everyone who has used it says it's smooth.