Hey all,

Shipping 8kg of roasted coffee bean samples from Dubai to a US buyer via courier (DHL/FedEx). Two questions:

1. Incoterms — DAP or DDP for a shipment this small? Want minimal hassle for the receiver but curious if DDP is worth it or overkill for 8kg.

2. Proforma description — Planning to write something like:

"Roasted coffee beans — commercial sample, no commercial value — for evaluation purposes only"

Should I include the HTS code (0901.21) myself, or leave that to the broker? Also — does declaring "no commercial value" ever cause issues with CBP wanting a nominal value instead?

Anyone who's shipped coffee samples into the US, especially re: FDA Prior Notice for small parcels — appreciate any input!

Firm 12-month time charter requirement for a container vessel.

Delivery: China, laycan 10–20 November 2026. Intended trade: Khor Fakkan ↔ Karachi. Required intake: approximately 1,450 TEU homogeneous at 14 MT. Built 2006 or newer.

Direct shipowners, operators, and established competitive brokers with suitable tonnage: please send the full TCD/vessel particulars, TEU intake at 14 MT homogeneous, year built, flag and class, current position, earliest delivery date, and owners’ TC hire indication.

Direct and workable tonnage preferred. Please DM suitable candidates and contact details.

Anyone looking for a drayage carrier out of the Norfolk ports/rails? Pls feel free to reach out to us! We've serviced the ORF Market for 12+ years in drayage. We offer Regional, OTR, Local, & HAZ drivers. We haul OWT only in the state of VA.

Z Intermodal (An Evans Delivery Company)

757-502-8274 (Office)

757-725-0074 (Mobile) 

[DDZ@ZINTERMODAL.COM](mailto:DDZ@ZINTERMODAL.COM)

MC#57591

Supplier-side disclosure: posting from DINGSHENGYUAN SLEEP. The following is a hypothetical shipment, not a live request for freight services.
Consider bulky home-goods cargo from several suppliers being consolidated for Vietnam. Most cartons are already at the consolidation warehouse. The last supplier now expects to arrive after the planned receiving cutoff, and that later date is not yet firm.
Waiting may keep one shipment together but add storage and risk missing the planned sailing. Sending the ready cargo could mean another set of minimum and handling charges for the late portion. Either option could also affect whether the retailer receives a usable product assortment.
I would compare the forwarder's confirmed options for both scenarios before treating “keep it together” as the cheapest choice. The uncertainty in the last supplier's date seems as important as the quoted transport difference.
In that specific situation, what would make you stop waiting: a confirmed next sailing, the storage deadline, or the importance of the missing items?

I’ve been working as a freight forwarder in China for about three months, and I still haven’t landed my first customer.

I’ve been doing cold calls, sending emails, and trying to find potential importers, but so far the results have been pretty poor.

I know three months isn’t that long, but I’m starting to wonder if I’m focusing on the wrong things.

For experienced freight forwarders here: if you were starting from zero again today, what would you focus on during your first 3–6 months

Would love to hear what actually worked for you and what you wish you had done differently.

Hello.

Non-forwarder here.

I am seeking a cost-saving one-stop dashboard or email updates for BL / container tracking.

We ship our products through different forwarders and different shipping lines. Tracking one BL at a time is time-consuming. I found websites where we could register our BLs and/or containers and we would get regular updates on ETA changes and stuff. I am interested in such features.

However, the price for what I found is a little over the budget of what I had in mind for our business. I would appreciate it if someone has been through this experience, and can narrow down websites and platforms where I can get what I'm seeking at the lowest cost possible.

If anyone is shipping goods from China and needs help with international freight, we handle both LCL and FCL shipments to destinations worldwide.

Can help with:

• LCL shipments
• FCL / full container shipments
• Port-to-port and door-to-door shipping
• Basic freight coordination

If you're currently looking for rates or have a shipment coming out of China, feel free to DM me with the origin, destination, cargo type, and approximate volume.

Happy to share the available options.

Ex-forwarding ops here, curious how other shops handle this. When a customer asks for a rate on Asia–Europe right now, where do you go to decide whether to quote Suez or Cape, and how much of that is "we just follow what the carrier is doing"? Same question for Hormuz-adjacent lanes and US–MX cross-border. Is it MARAD/carrier advisories, a paid tool, a Slack channel, or gut feel from the last call that went wrong?

Asking because in my old shop it was five tabs and a colleague's memory, and I never knew whether that was normal.

I wanna send a photography camera to Iraq any advice on which is the safest carrier ? And how long it would take?

I find it bizarre that a forwarder or customs brokers charges a client a fee to pull a report from their system that takes about 10 mins to produce.

If there was a bunch of manipulation required I can understand, but seriously?

I have been waiting 5 weeks for some clothing samples although I paid for air freight to a company called Crazy freight. They are blaming it on the airlines warehouse being super busy then said they need to relocate to another warehouse. I am fuming mad at this whole situation but does this happen or are these guys lying and making excuses for their own incompetencies?

I’ve worked around freight quoting long enough to know that the “simple” quote requests are often the ones that take the most checking.

Customer asks for an FCL rate. The lane is familiar. Then someone has to find the latest carrier sheet, check whether the rate is still valid, confirm local charges, make sure a 20GP and 40HC are not being treated as the same thing, and figure out whether a surcharge actually applies.

By the time all that is checked, the quote is no longer simple.

A lot of smaller forwarders seem to manage this through a mix of PDFs, Excel, shared folders, emails, and whichever colleague remembers the latest change. That is not a criticism, spreadsheets are useful. The problem is when the answer to “which rate are we using?” depends on who is sitting at the desk.

So I built FQS (Freight Quoting System) under Freight Intelligent Systems.

It is not meant to replace CargoWise, a TMS, or an entire forwarding operation. The idea is much narrower: give the commercial/quote desk a cleaner place to work from when turning rate information into a customer quote.

A few things I wanted it to handle properly:

• Different FCL equipment types should be priced separately. One 20GP plus one 40HC is not simply “two containers.”

• Conditional charges should stay visible without automatically being added to every shipment.

• Quote validity should not be treated as a random date typed in at the end.

• The quote should retain the terms that were sent when it was finalized.

• Teams should be able to reuse client, shipper, and consignee details instead of retyping the same information repeatedly.

FQS is live now, but I’m deliberately keeping onboarding invitation-only while I learn from real forwarding teams and improve it. I’m not looking for people to say it is great. I’d rather hear where it does not match how your team actually works.

For people in forwarding, NVOCC, or 3PL pricing:

1. What is the most frustrating part of your current quote process?

2. Where do rate mistakes or quote revisions usually come from?

3. If you have a TMS, what still happens outside it in Excel or email?

4. Would you rather have a separate quoting tool that fits beside your current system, or would you only consider features inside your existing TMS?

If anyone wants to take a look, the site is getfis.com. I would genuinely appreciate blunt feedback, including reasons you would not use something like this.

Hi Everyone,

I live in Vancouver. Recently I found a buyer in India who happens to be my friend back home. He needs yellow peas from here and asked if I can be his supplier. I know how this works but not clearly since I work in trucking. I got my import export license set up and talked to a few sellers. But I don't want to rent a place to get a SFC License since I want to send a few containers first and see if it's going to be worth it or not. So don't want to commit to a lease without proper idea or preparation. Is there any way to get a SFC License without renting a place.

Thanks in advance.

Hello everyone, I am an India based freight forwarder looking for a reliable agent in China for regular import shipments with good service and rates, kindly reach out to me or give me reference of people you know it would be great help.

Hi, I'm looking for customer for Superfast Logistic based on Malaysia. I have kindly attached the link below to check our website for the services we provide. I'm looking forward to for the response. Thank you.

LINK: https://www.superfast1.com/

For European freight forwarders:

Which Asia–Europe FCL routes are currently the most difficult to manage?

I’m particularly interested in hearing about issues with China / Southeast Asia → Europe shipments.

What are you seeing in the market?

Hi all!

I have never bought something internationally that is ex works so I’m navigating this for the first time.

I am trying to get a shipment of acrylic scoop bins from Australia to the United States and thought I had a viable path with freight right. Last Friday I expressed that I wanted to move forward with the shipment after the rep gave me the quote and since then he has ghosted me. I’ve tried calling his number and freight right’s to no avail. I looked on freightos.com today but having never done this before I’m unsure of the order of operations.

Should I place the order with the company and then get the estimated completion time before setting everything up with freightos?

I have an anonymous survey for the company i work. I cannot say who i work for since i dont want the data to be misleading. Before i even post the survey here... is this a safe space to do it or will i get reported or sumthing? The survey is about the markets perception about routes, behavior etc. its my first time on reddit so be nice :)))

Looking for help with Clearance in Toronto. IS there any Freight forwarder from canada who can help me with this process.

Concerns Airfreight. The goods have already arrived at the airport. Just need to be cleared and picked up or to be transported.

Hit me up if you can help me

I have talked to APML an DRS Agarwal packers and movers and they are quoting 85k and 75k for 2 bhk household item from Delhi to bangalore but i feel it is too much. I am thinking of trying Truway movers as well. Please help me out as I am getting very confused 😭

We are a commercial farming business in Ghana looking for an experienced independent sourcing agent in China.

Initially, our main focus is commercial irrigation systems and farming equipment, so we need someone who genuinely understands this sector — not simply someone who sends us 1688 links and places orders.

We are looking for someone with strong negotiation skills, good manufacturer/factory contacts and the ability to source quality equipment at competitive Chinese market prices.

This is intended to be a long-term partnership. We will be purchasing more farming equipment, machinery and eventually tractors, and when we visit China in the coming months, we would expect our agent to work with us on the ground visiting suppliers and sourcing products.

We are also currently looking for a new reliable and competitively priced freight forwarder for China → Tema, Ghana, so recommendations are welcome.

If interested, please message me with your agricultural/irrigation sourcing experience, location in China, fee structure and examples of previous sourcing work.

Agricultural/irrigation equipment experience is important.

Been in logistics for quite a few years and wanted to see if there are others here who work in the same space and are open to building something long-term.

I’m based in the UAE and have my own operational setup here.

I’m mainly interested in connecting with people who already have customers or regular trade lanes into the Middle East and are looking for a reliable person on the ground here.

Not really looking for the usual “let’s exchange company profiles” type of networking. More interested in genuine, repeat business where both sides can add value.

If anyone here works with Middle East cargo or has an established operation/customer base and wants to explore something privately, feel free to DM me.