How to Arrange China Logistics and Door-to-Door Shipping from China
Most buyers start with the product and treat shipping as an afterthought. That order is backwards. The way you arrange freight decides your landed cost, how much cash sits in transit, and whether you can restock before your bestseller runs out.
This guide walks through the full sequence, from the Incoterm you agree with your supplier to the truck that parks outside your warehouse.
What door-to-door shipping actually includes
A door-to-door arrangement (often quoted as DDP) means one party handles everything between your supplier's factory and your address:
- Pickup at the factory, including loading
- Export customs declaration in China
- Main freight by sea, air, rail or a mix
- Import customs clearance in your country
- Duties and taxes, if the quote is DDP
- Final delivery to your door or warehouse
Compare this with FOB, where your responsibility begins when the goods are loaded at the Chinese port, and you separately hire a forwarder, a broker and a trucker. FOB can be cheaper on paper. It is only cheaper in practice if you have the time and contacts to manage four vendors.
One thing worth checking: many door-to-door quotes are not operated by one company. A Chinese forwarder books the main leg and hands off to a partner agent at destination. Ask who the destination agent is, and who you call when a container is stuck.
Step 1: Fix the Incoterm before you agree on price
| Term | Who pays main freight | Who clears import | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| EXW | You | You | You already have a China-side agent who can collect from the factory |
| FOB | You | You | You buy regularly and want control over freight rates |
| CIF | Supplier, to your port | You | Small first orders where you want one less moving part |
| DDP / door-to-door | Supplier or forwarder | Them | New importers, sample-to-stock runs, buyers without a broker |
Suppliers often quote FOB by default. If you want door-to-door, say so before you compare prices, otherwise you are comparing a product price with a product-plus-freight price and the numbers mean nothing.
Step 2: Decide whether to consolidate
If you are buying from three or four suppliers, you have a choice: three small shipments or one consolidated shipment. Consolidation usually wins. A warehouse in Shenzhen, Ningbo or Yiwu receives goods from each factory, checks cartons, repacks where needed, and loads one container or one air pallet.
Consolidation also solves a common problem. Small suppliers and 1688 sellers often cannot export in their own name. They have no export licence and cannot issue the paperwork your broker needs. A China-side partner can buy on your behalf, collect the goods and handle the export declaration.
Step 3: Pick the shipping mode
| Mode | Use it when | Typical transit time | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sea LCL | 1 to 15 CBM, non-urgent | 25 to 40 days port to port | Destination fees per CBM can rival the freight itself |
| Sea FCL (20ft or 40ft) | 15+ CBM or bulky goods | 25 to 35 days | You pay for the container, not the cargo |
| Air freight | 100 to 500 kg, restock urgency | 5 to 10 days | Chargeable weight is volumetric, not actual |
| Courier (DHL, FedEx, UPS) | Under 100 kg, samples | 3 to 7 days | Duty and tax are often billed after delivery |
| Rail (China to Europe) | EU inland destinations | 18 to 25 days | Routes and schedules shift; not open to every commodity |
Freight rates move constantly. Ask for a quote valid for 14 days and confirm which surcharges are locked in.
Check the chargeable weight rule before you choose air. A carton of plush toys at 40 x 40 x 50 cm with 6 kg actual weight bills at roughly 13 kg volumetric. That changes the maths quickly.
Step 4: Get the paperwork right
Standard documents for most shipments:
- Commercial invoice and packing list, matching actual quantities
- Bill of lading or air waybill
- Certificate of origin, if your country has a trade agreement with China
- Product certificates: CE for the EU, FCC for US electronics, FDA for food contact and cosmetics, CPSIA for children's products
- Importer registration: EORI in the EU, a bond and ISF filing in the US
The HS code decides your duty rate. Ask your broker to classify from a spec sheet and photos, not from the supplier's description alone. A wrong code can mean an exam, a penalty, or a refund claim you will never finish.
Step 5: Plan the last mile
The final delivery is where cheap quotes quietly fall apart. Settle these early:
- Is your address commercial or residential? Residential deliveries in the US and Canada often need a liftgate and an appointment.
- Does the truck need to unload inside a building? Container unloading is not free.
- Who pays detention if the container sits at port because your paperwork is late?
For a first shipment, sending a container to a commercial warehouse with a loading dock is far easier than sending it to your home.
Step 6: Inspect before the container closes
Once goods are loaded and the container is sealed, every fix costs ten times more. Book a pre-shipment inspection when production is complete and packed: check quantity, carton marks, function, and packaging condition. Photograph the loading, including the seal number.
If your suppliers sit in different cities from your forwarder, allow two to four extra days for inland trucking and warehouse receiving.
A realistic timeline
| Stage | Days |
|---|---|
| Production | 20 to 35 |
| Inspection and carton marking | 2 to 3 |
| Booking, trucking to port, export clearance | 5 to 8 |
| Ocean transit (Asia to US West Coast or North Europe) | 25 to 35 |
| Import clearance and duty payment | 2 to 5 |
| Final delivery | 1 to 5 |
Budget 60 to 75 days from order to your door on sea freight. Air freight compresses the middle, not the production.
What is actually inside a door-to-door quote
Ask for the quote broken into these lines so you can compare like with like:
- Origin: pickup, export declaration, port handling
- Main freight and fuel surcharge
- Destination: terminal handling, documentation, customs entry
- Duty and VAT or GST
- Delivery, plus any waiting time
- Insurance, usually 0.2 to 0.5 percent of cargo value
A quote that only shows a total is not a quote you can compare.
Mistakes that cost the most
- Comparing a DDP quote with an FOB quote as if they were the same thing
- Forgetting duty and VAT when calculating margin
- Assuming the supplier handles export paperwork when they cannot
- Shipping batteries, liquids, magnets or cosmetics without declaring them
- Under-declaring value to save duty, then finding insurance pays out on the declared value
- Skipping inspection, then discovering a 5 percent defect rate after the goods land
Questions worth asking before you commit
- Who is your agent at destination, and who files my customs entry?
- Is duty included, and at what rate?
- What is excluded: detention, demurrage, exams, liftgate?
- What chargeable weight or volume rule do you apply?
- Can you collect from multiple suppliers and consolidate?
- What happens if customs holds the shipment, and who pays for the delay?
Where a local team changes the outcome
Most of the friction in China shipping is not the ocean leg. It is the supplier who stops replying, the factory that cannot export, the cartons that do not match the invoice, and the forwarder who only answers in Chinese during a customs exam. A local team sits in the middle of those problems, in the time zone opposite yours, speaking both languages.
Globesino handles supplier sourcing, factory and pre-shipment inspection, consolidation and door-to-door delivery from China, so you deal with one contact instead of five.