Friction: This
China-side freight forwarding office that your local shipper arranges is, 9
times out of 10, a pain in the butt to your China-side supplier.
Especially if it’s a first-time order with a supplier then undoubtedly that
shipping company is going to be a source of annoyance.
You’d would think since the ultimate goal is to
send the goods overseas the China shipping office and the supplier or factory
would be partnering up for the greater good. That’s far from the
case. These shipping offices are hard to work with, they purposefully
don’t answer and are hard to track down. Then for each job inside of the
company, they have a different contact person. Your supplier has to jump
through all of these hurdles just to get your goods exported.
Why so much strife? Since the shipping
company thinks they are working on behalf of the overseas shipping office, they
want to do as little as possible in helping the supplier line up the shipment
and get all moving pieces going forward. It’s the Chinese mindset of “I
don’t know them, why should I help?”
This seems counterproductive, right?
The Chinese-side shipper is making extremely low
margins (they work on volume, not individual cases). If the supplier and
freight forwarding office don’t have a history together, both parties are
probably not working up-to-speed for the other; ie finding the right
sync. Instead of either side taking responsibility, important points and
confirmations are left by the wayside thus leading to possible delays and
customs inspections.
Promotional Products FOB Perspective: As
always at the JLmade blog, the focus is on promotional products and branded
merchandise. A large portion of our manufacturing is for promo campaigns,
launches and events. Quick delivery time is always required; therefore
consider the following when doing FOB.
* When ordering from many factories and
suppliers your shipper is reestablishing this relationship with a new company
every time. See above “getting to know you problems”.
* A good supplier helps to overcome these
issues and will fully-partner up with your shipper in spite of the trouble the
shipper is giving.
* Your shipper doesn’t give you the whole
story. Many delays are because of the shipper being hardheaded and
non-transparent with the factory on when goods need to be in the warehouse,
closing dates, etc… If your delivery time is urgent, control the shipping
via your local office; be "in the know". Leaving
it all up to the supplier does not equal you putting in the proper amount of
legwork.
* When planning on delivery times with your
Chinese supplier leave out the unnecessary information. The supplier
doesn’t need to know when you need it in what city for what brand, for what
campaign, for what event. They need to know when the goods need to leave
their factory and when it needs to leave China. Don’t focus on in-hand
date, focus on China departure date. If you are booking this from abroad, you and your shipper focus on all dates once it leaves China. Believe me;
I’ve seen great confusion in buyer and supplier talks, where the buyer is
talking about an “in-hand” date and the supplier is talking about a
out-of-factory or at most, China-departure date.
* A 1-day delay can lead to a 1-week delay. The China-side shipper doesn’t do a great job coordinating the
closure and sailing options with the factory (which shipping lines leaves, what
day, for what delivery?). The China shipper should be spoon-feeding the
factory this info, but instead the factory has to scratch and claw just to get
fuzzy facts. Again, lack of margin leads the shipper to do as little as
possible.
Keep in mind when dealing with factories; their
vision is not extending too far past the factory walls. Delivery to them
means the day the goods leave the factory. And rightfully so..they are a
production facility, not a logistics company.
These are headaches a supplier shouldn’t have to
put up with…but they do on their buyer’s behalf. On the overseas side, be sure to do your due-diligence in making sure all moving pieces and parties line
up. Don’t leave it all in the hands of the factory. Allow them
ample energy to focus on production.
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