Freight forwarding tips: What should be noted when booking export railway freight?
Since the opening of Yixin Europe, the use of railway transportation has become more common, with a continuous flow of small commodities being shipped abroad. During the transportation process, there are many headache inducing issues for shippers, such as product name, cost, delivery time, and booking. Today, we will talk about the things to pay attention to when booking for export railways.
One
Product Name Confirmation
Booking requires confirming whether the goods can be shipped before booking, and generally requires providing the Chinese product name and corresponding HS code.
The goods need to be confirmed both domestically and internationally before they can be shipped. For some goods such as wooden products, bamboo products, cosmetics, etc. that require domestic customs clearance and inspection, it is necessary to first confirm whether the inspection can be provided.
Some HS goods arriving in Mara require a TEST REPORT and an English version of the conformity statement, and customers need to confirm whether they can provide it first.
On October 12, 2018, a company in Jiangsu Province concealed its import declaration while knowing that cosmetics were hidden in imported printed materials to evade customs supervision. Finally, Nantong Customs conducted centralized and harmless destruction of the batch of cosmetics.
Confirmation of goods such as batteries and chemicals also requires a railway safety transportation appraisal certificate. Without an appraisal certificate, transportation is generally not accepted.
Flammable and explosive dangerous goods are absolutely not allowed to be transported.
Two
Price confirmation
The goods have been confirmed to be able to be shipped normally, but the customer needs to confirm the cost with the business before arranging the booking.
The cost includes: transportation fees from station to station, domestic trailer fees, container balancing fees and customs clearance fees incurred by foreign customers who need to return the container to another city, storage fees, unloading fees, tallying and loading fees, reinforcement fees, palletizing fees, and trailer fees for containers loaded into the warehouse. If foreign customers need to arrange for clearance and delivery, they need to confirm the clearance and delivery fees in advance based on the actual address.
Some expenses need to be confirmed temporarily as the specific amount will only be known after they are actually incurred. For example, domestic inspection fees, foreign inspection fees, waiting fees incurred during foreign clearance and delivery processes, storage fees and overdue container return fees at foreign yards, domestic offset correction fees, additional overnight fees and overweight fees incurred during container loading, and so on.
Three
Position and Time Confirmation
After the customer confirms the goods and price, they can confirm the actual storage space with the business or operation. Based on the production time of the goods and the arrival time requested by the foreign customer, they can confirm the number of storage spaces that need to be arranged.
Business and operations will confirm the availability of available space and suggest the most suitable train to customers based on the time when the goods are ready. If the guest has a request to board the train, it can be coordinated and arranged with the operating instructions.
#Site Timeliness
1
Mara
12-14 days
2
Duisburg
16-17 days
3
Madrid
21-23 days
4
Prague (Duisburg transit)
About 20 days
5
Minsk
About 16 days
6
Moscow Volxino
About 15 days
7
Moscow Hoflino
About 15 days
Note: In case of any special circumstances during railway transportation, such as weather conditions, holidays, etc., resulting in train delays, the operation will promptly notify customers and provide corresponding delay notifications.
Four
Official booking
After the guest confirms the space, they need to provide a booking voucher, which should indicate:
Shipper: Chinese and English company name, address, contact information, and contact person (Vorsino, Minsk, and Hoflino trains also require displaying Russian company information).
1
Consignee: English company name, address, phone number, email (Vorsino, Minsk, Hoflino), and also display Russian company information.
2
Destination station, container return point, container type (FCL/LCL), container quantity, operation contact information, whether transportation is required, whether it needs to be loaded into the warehouse, and whether it needs to be cleared on behalf of others.
3
The approximate types and names of goods, as well as the weight of the goods, facilitate the arrangement of suitable collection trucks for transportation.
4
Information of booking customers: Due to the need for financial billing reconciliation, booking customers also need to provide information about domestic companies: Chinese company name, address, contact person, and contact phone number.
5
Return: After receiving the consignment note, reply to the customer's booking status. Confirm that the storage space has been booked, and customers should try to avoid temporary returns. If a return is required, it should be confirmed with the operator 7-8 days before departure. Temporary returns will incur a loss of cabin fee. Generally, for returns made within 7 days before departure, a loss of cabin fee of $1500 will be charged to the customer. For returns made within 3 days before departure, the full shipping fee will be charged to the customer as the loss of cabin fee.
6
That's about it. It's all based on years of industry experience and practical experience. There are also other updates that will be kept up to date. Of course, if you want to know more, please feel free to leave a comment in the comment section.
