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Multimodal means one contract covering two or more modes — typically a sea or rail main leg with road or air feeding each end — so one party answers for the whole movement instead of you arbitrating between three document sets. It beats a single mode when the constraint is not speed but the shape of the chain: cargo that cannot fly on cost or on battery paperwork and cannot sit on a direct ocean schedule inside your stock-out window, or a destination where the deep-sea gateway is far inland and a rail transfer moves it the last thousand kilometres more cheaply than road. It loses when a simple parcel lane already clears your deadline, because every transfer is a handling event and a handling event is where damage and delay are born. Our published bands are 5-9 working days for air door-to-door, 12-20 days on the China-Europe rail schedule and 28-38 days ocean express for major EU ports, approximate and indicative; combined routings are quoted as their own transit figure. The mode-by-mode logic is on the freight forwarding page.
Both documents can exist on the same movement, and which one you hold tells you who is answerable to you. The line issues a master bill to the party that contracted the space. A forwarder with a non-vessel-operating common carrier filing issues its own house bill to the shipper, and that house bill is what a seller normally wants, because it names the forwarder as the contracting carrier and gives the consignee a document from the party that actually took the booking. Consignees are notified against whichever document governs release, so a mix-up between master and house is how cargo waits at a terminal while everyone insists they filed on time. Our own filings are public registrations and can be checked: a forwarder record published by MOFCOM and NVOCC filing GD20230718112829, dated 18 July 2023. Ask which bill will be issued before the booking. What we book and file is set out on the freight forwarding page.
Either, and both arrangements are normal; the thing that has to be settled in writing is which one you are paying for. When a factory crates, the packing follows the manufacturer's habit and often the cheapest available board, and we inspect it at goods-in and tell you what we found before the container is loaded. When we crate, the specification is set against the route and the handling chain: frame or box, where the lift points are, how the unit is restrained, and what the marking on the outside has to say. Timber is a separate question with a separate answer — heat treatment and the ISPM-15 mark are issued by the licensed treatment facility, so the correct statement is that the timber we buy in carries that treatment, not that we apply it. Neither party can sign a conformity or battery document it did not test. Crating options are listed on the oversized cargo page, alongside the lift planning.
Three numbers, checked against the channel and not against each other: the longest side, the second-longest side, and the girth, which is the longest side plus twice the width plus twice the height. A carton can pass every individual limit and still fail on girth, and a piece that clears the weight ceiling of a parcel channel can still break that same channel's length ceiling. Density is the fourth consideration — a light but bulky item is billed on volumetric weight, so the cheaper question is often whether the pack can be redesigned rather than whether the lane can be forced. Past the parcel channel the conversation changes: pallet dimensions, how the load sits relative to the pallet edges, lift points, and whether the piece needs a frame rather than a box. Out-of-gauge then means a container or break-bulk decision with a route survey, not a bigger courier label. Our published parcel bands and the channel confirmation step for borderline pieces are on the oversized cargo page.
The return flows back to the China warehouse, not to the overseas delivery point. Our overseas stations hold stock and send local orders out; they are not return-acceptance points and they do not take goods back for inspection, so a returned unit has to travel to the domestic warehouse before anyone can tell you what it is. That is the constraint that decides the design: for a low-value item, refunding without retrieval is usually cheaper than an inbound parcel plus a check, and a good partner will say so instead of quoting a return address you cannot use. Where the unit matters, we receive it, open it against a photograph set, grade it, and give you a disposition — restock, repair, recycle or hold — with the reason code recorded. Refurbishment and relabeling can turn a graded unit back into sellable stock. Claims on goods in our handling are settled on the declared value. The receiving and grading work is described on the inspection and returns record.
It hides it on the parcel and the paperwork we control, which is the useful and honest scope. Blind shipping here means neutral outer packaging with no supplier branding, no invoice or promotional insert from the manufacturer, and shipping documents issued so that the store name on the label is the name your customer sees. What no fulfillment partner can erase is anything printed by the factory inside the box — a warranty card, a manual with a logo, or a carton that arrives carrying a brand you did not approve. That is why the packing materials and the in-box contents are agreed once and then checked at goods-in rather than trusted per shipment. Semi-sensitive and regulated products still need a channel answer before a date is promised; neutral packaging changes who the parcel appears to come from, not what the border thinks the goods are. Compensation on a claim is based on the declared value. The operation is described on our blind shipping service record.
No. We accept one-piece orders with no minimum commitment, and a slow month should not become a fixed cost you pay for anyway. What a single-order operation genuinely needs is not volume but discipline: the order has to reach the pick queue with a valid address, the stock has to be where the system says it is, and the handover to the carrier has to happen before the collection run leaves. Our published order accuracy is at or above 99.5% measured at the order-line level, with mispicks below 0.01% of lines, and every adjustment to a count carries a reason code and an approver, because a warehouse that can edit a number without a trace has a belief about accuracy rather than a measurement. Cut-off is 16:00 China time for a same-day handover; after it, the order is staged for the next one. Storage and handling are quoted per line rather than as a minimum invoice. The full working detail is on the single-order fulfillment page.
It goes to the next departure on the same channel rather than being squeezed onto the one already booked, which is the honest answer and the one that protects your inbound window. Our goods-in cut-off for a same-day handover is 16:00 China time; cartons that arrive after it are received, counted and staged, then released on the following collection. For a consolidated headhaul that means the whole booking waits unless you authorize a split, and a split usually costs more than the delay it avoids, because two consignments clear twice. The number that actually needs protecting is not the sailing date but your marketplace appointment window, so when a cut-off is at risk we tell you before the truck is scheduled and you choose between waiting, splitting, or moving a smaller urgent portion by air at 5-9 working days. Every exception on our side is answered by a named owner inside two hours and closed inside twenty-four. The cut-off and staging rules are on the single-order fulfillment page.
As much as possible, for one arithmetic reason: the same minute of labour costs materially less at origin than it does after the container has crossed an ocean, and a rejected carton at an inbound center costs you a reschedule as well as the work. The prep we run in the Dongguan and Suzhou warehouses is the standard set — marketplace labeling to the specification current on the booking date, polybagging with the suffocation warning where a bag is used, and a check that the pack pattern on the carton matches the file you sent. Specifications change, so we treat the label artwork as an approved document rather than a habit, and the check is recorded against the shipment rather than assumed from the previous one. What prep cannot do is make a regulated product compliant: conformity evidence, battery documentation and any legal marking stay the seller's responsibility. Related: our labeling and relabeling service and the FBA prep page.
It can cover the import clearance for a consignment that then distributes onward, which is not the same as one entry for every destination parcel. Once goods are in free circulation in the EU after clearance at a Dutch point, moving them to Belgium or to the German border region is an intra-community transfer rather than a fresh import, so the paperwork weight sits at the front of the chain. What still has to be sorted separately is the VAT position in each country of delivery and any excise or regulated category in the mix. Our Netherlands lane publishes 5-9 working days air door-to-door and 28-38 days ocean express for the major-port band, both approximate and indicative, and the onward European leg is quoted as its own line rather than folded silently into freight. The entry-point logic and the four departures are written out on the China to Netherlands route page, with the wider door-to-door terms on the DDP service page.
