Don’t choose a freight forwarder randomly when doing UAE trade. Read my real-life experience with Mr. Huang from Guangzhou to avoid pitfalls.
Mr. Huang is a foreign trader specializing in the UAE market. His factory is in Guangzhou. Initially, he wasn’t very big, only handling two or three shipments a month, each weighing around 100 kilograms.
When we first contacted each other, he was very direct, asking if we were a shell company and if we outsourced orders. To be honest, many freight forwarding companies outsource orders these days, so even I was very suspicious on my first encounter.
Honestly, you can’t prove this just by talking. So I video-called Mr. Huang and said, “Mr. Huang, I’ll walk around our company with a video. You’ll see. We’re on the 8th floor of Building B, Rongde Times Square, a whole 1800 square meters, all owned by us, not rented.” I walked around with the video; this can’t be faked. I couldn’t possibly go to someone else’s place just to show Mr. Huang the video.
Huang didn’t say anything more; he was actually reassured about us, though he certainly wouldn’t say it aloud. After everything else was agreed upon, we decided to do a small trial order. Then came the actual operation. The OEM factory was in Guangzhou, and we had to pick up the goods there. Think about shipping from China to the UAE—it involves customs clearance and delivery. I told Huang directly that we had our own fleet of trucks and could pick up the goods. Our experienced driver, Master Zong, had been driving for over 30 years; there wouldn’t be any problem. The goods were successfully shipped to the UAE.
Later, Huang’s business flourished, and he always used me for shipping. However, one time the factory couldn’t finish producing the fabric, but the flight had to depart the next day. Anyone in e-commerce knows that stockouts can cause your ranking to drop dozens of pages in a day; even with massive advertising spending, it’s hard to recover. He was extremely anxious. I arranged for Master Zong to wait at the factory gate at 2 AM. As soon as the goods were ready, they were loaded onto the truck and driven straight to the airport. We arrived at Bao’an Airport cargo terminal before 4 AM. The goods were quickly weighed, inspected, and palletized, and cleared customs smoothly before the 6 AM cutoff, boarding the morning cargo plane to Dubai. Mr. Huang was very satisfied.
Sometimes Mr. Huang’s goods fly not only from Guangzhou and Shenzhen, but sometimes also from Hong Kong and Shanghai. Why? Because shipping from China to the UAE involves different airlines and different origins, and the delivery time and price can fluctuate greatly. We always strive to provide the best value for money while maintaining consistent service. Shipping Mr. Huang’s goods has become increasingly smooth for us.
In other words, while low prices are important for shipping from China to the UAE, controllability is even more crucial. Otherwise, if you promise delivery to the UAE in seven days, but it takes eight or ten days, who will use your service next time? So what I really want to say is, never blindly believe in the lowest price on the entire internet. If the goods arrive late and miss the flight, the few dollars saved on shipping won’t be enough to cover the losses. When choosing a freight forwarder, you must first look at its scale and professionalism. Those who don’t even dare to let you video chat in their office area, brother, think about it carefully, would you dare let them send you a message?
