Most people importing for the first time picture one long journey: goods leave China, goods arrive in Tanzania. In practice your cargo changes hands several times, and knowing where those handovers are is what lets you tell a delay from a disaster.
1. Your supplier delivers to our warehouse
You give your supplier our Guangzhou address with your name written on it. That name is the only thing connecting the boxes to you, so it matters more than anything else on the label. A carton that arrives with no name is a carton nobody can find.
2. We receive, weigh and photograph it
The same day it arrives we put it on the scale, photograph it as it came in, and give it a tracking number. That photograph is your evidence if anything is damaged later — it is the record of what condition the goods were in before we touched them.
3. It joins a loading table
Normal goods go on the Guangzhou table; electronics and liquids go on the Hong Kong one, because those need a different airport and different paperwork. You do not choose this — the type of goods does.
4. The batch is sealed and flown
We fly Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. When a table is sealed it gets a waybill number and a flight, and every piece on it moves to In Transit at once.
5. It lands and is checked against the manifest
In Dar the whole batch is checked piece by piece against a printed list. Anything missing is flagged there and then, not discovered three weeks later when somebody comes to collect.
6. Customs
Cargo clears as part of the consignment. This is the step with the least predictable timing — a batch can clear in a day or sit for several.
7. You are invoiced
Once the cargo is checked in, the charge is calculated on our scale weight and the rate for your goods. Not on the weight your supplier told you.
8. You pay and collect
Bring the tracking number. We scan the code on your box, confirm the payment, photograph the handover, and it is yours.
The two steps you can influence are the first and the seventh. Get your name on the boxes, and tell us what is inside so it is priced on the right rate.
