One shipment instead of several parcels — and one contact

The route: from the supplier to your warehouse

Components are rarely bought from a single seller. One part of the list is in Shenzhen, another in Shanghai, a third is still on its way to the supplier from the factory. Ship every purchase separately and you pay for logistics several times and receive several document sets.

We consolidate the goods at our warehouses in Shenzhen and Shanghai. There the order is checked against the packing list, the quantity and the packaging are verified, and one shipment is formed. From there the cargo goes to Russia, and along the whole route you have one contact instead of a correspondence with every seller.

Customs clearance is done by the importer — you or your broker. Our part is to hand over the set of documents the cargo needs, and to clarify its composition in advance for your supply scheme.

The warehouse check is not a box count. We look at whether the lines in the packing list match what physically arrived, and whether the packaging will survive the road and not only the loading.

Where the cargo is and what can happen to it

While the cargo is moving, the party responsible for it changes: at the warehouse it is us, in transit it is the carrier, at the border it is the importer and their broker. So "tracking" here is not a single link but several sources, and promising one tracker for the whole route would be untrue.

From us you get what is confirmed by documents: the fact of shipment, the composition of the batch, the weight and the nature of the packaging. Beyond that the status depends on the carrier — it is usually available against the shipment number, and we pass it on as soon as it reaches us.

Now the risks. Cargo can be delayed, arrive damaged or in the wrong configuration. Damage and shortage are recorded at acceptance, and from there we act under the delivery terms: the claim to the carrier is filed by the party responsible for the cargo on that leg. Insurance is discussed separately and before shipment — it cannot be arranged after the fact.

Lead time: what the date is made of

When people ask "how long does a parcel take", they usually mean time in transit. In practice the delivery term is the sum of four stages, and only the last one depends on the carrier.

The first stage is sourcing: until the part is confirmed by the supplier, the shipment date is not defined. The second is consolidation: the goods must reach the warehouse, be checked and be packed. The third is the transit itself. The fourth is clearance at the border, which depends on more than the carrier.

The practical conclusion: ask for the term together with the list of parts, not separately from it. A term "for the route" without a list is an answer about nothing.

We give a term after the parts are confirmed and show which stages it is made of. The term depends on the route, the type of cargo and warehouse load; the actual dates are confirmed per part. If a date is critical, say so in the request — a different route can sometimes be matched to it.

One shipment instead of several parcels

Consolidation is not about saving on packaging. It removes the situation where parts from one order travel as separate parcels — each with its own document set and its own term. The recipient then has to merge them into one receipt, and that is usually where it turns out that some of the boxes are still on the way.

At the warehouse the cargo can be combined, repacked to transport requirements and marked so that acceptance in Russia does not require opening every box. If part of the order arrived earlier, it waits for the rest — storage terms are agreed in advance, together with the route. That is convenient when suppliers ship on different dates. It is inconvenient when a part is needed urgently: then it is better to send that part separately, at once.

The second effect is documents. One shipment means one set per batch, and the broker does not have to merge several invoices with different dates and different senders. How this part of the work is organised is described on the Consolidation and warehouse page (in Russian).

Customs and Incoterms: who is responsible for what

The most frequent source of surprises is not transport but the division of responsibility. Who files the declaration, who pays the duty, at what moment the cargo passes to you: all of this is set by the delivery terms, and it is better agreed before the goods are paid for.

We discuss Incoterms for your scheme. If the import is cleared by you and your broker, terms under which we are responsible for the cargo up to an agreed point fit. If you already have a worked-out route, the terms will be different.

If your supply scheme changes from batch to batch, say so in advance: terms agreed for the previous route may not fit the new one, and renegotiating them at the moment of shipment costs more.

On our side we hand over the documents for the cargo, answer the broker's questions about the composition of the batch and flag the parts that need additional documents. The specific delivery terms and the document set are agreed before shipment — for your import scheme, not for our template.

Who is on the other side of the correspondence

Sourcing in China breaks not on the cost but on communication: the request goes out in English, comes back with abbreviations, and half of the questions stay unanswered. That is why we have three account managers in sales who speak Russian, and the request can be sent the way it suits you.

The people you correspond with do not sit in a call centre: behind them is the warehouse in Shenzhen or Shanghai where your goods are, and the ability to check them before shipment. That means less correspondence about "where the goods are now" and more about what to do with a specific part.

Questions about a specific batch are resolved faster in writing than on a call: there is a record of what exactly was agreed and in which version.

If you need a route for your cargo or want to discuss terms before a request — Contacts and the company details are on a separate page.

Frequently asked questions