Ocean Freight – Being Cheated or Not

In order to maximize the cost of shipping at the cheapest prices and to ensure the safety with reasonable transit time, not all importers and exporters know how to avoid high shipping cost. Here are some notes for importers and exporters to optimize ocean freight.

1. Volume of goods

Importers and exporters should note that sea freight services should only be used when the volume of cargo to be transported is greater than or equal to 300 kgs.

As prescribed, the international weight unit used for shipping is cubic meter (CBM).

Sea freight rates from forwarders will all be based on CBM.

Example 1:

The cargo to the Hamburg ,main port of Germany is USD 30 / cbm. Cbm is calculated by the formula:

Length x Width x Height (dimensions in meters)

Example 2:

1 Carton size 70 cm x 80 cm x 100 cm, we have to convert to 0.7 m x 0.8m x 1m = 0.56 cbm.

However, according to international regulations, the minimum volume for LCL is 1 cbm. So if the merchandise <1 cbm (in the example of 0.56 cbm) is rounded up to 1 cbm. And international shipping rates here will be calculated on 1 cbm, not multiplied by 0.56 cbm.

Importers and exporters should note that if the volume of goods is too small (<1cbm), it should be possible to use other shipping services such as air freight or international express mail.

2. Conditions for international delivery

In the international freight tariff from the shipping lines, customers often see as shown in the table of freight rates for sea freight for LCL from Hai Phong to international ports:

International freight rates are quoted on the basis of each carrier

Thus, in the table of freight, the freight only charged to the cargo from port to port means that the exporter must deliver the cargo to the carrier at Hai Phong port and the carrier’s responsibility is to transfer to the port of destination. (for example, the Brussels, port of Belgium is USD 24 per cbm).

Accordingly, customers need to pay attention, avoid the seller to cheat that the USD 24 is the shpping cost including delivered to the home address or warehouse in Brussels, but the actual shipping rates on the delivery only to Brussels port. In addition, the importer in Belgium has to pay some surcharges at Brussels, the customs clearance fee, and the inland trucking from the port to his home. Unless, the customer selects the door to door service of the carrier, the goods will be received and delivered at the address, of course, the cost will then add up more than the rate in the table above.

Thus, with the 2 note above, importers can check to avoid being cheated by the seller and will complain very much if the nature of additional charges incurred at the port of destination without notice.