International Shipping & Logistics
Alternator International Delivery: From Stock to Customs to the Customer's Door
Twenty alternators sat in customs for two weeks and two confirmed retail orders were cancelled. The product was fine; the packing list said 18 units, the invoice 20. Payment starts an international order; it does not finish it. Six stages sit between a supplier's warehouse and a customer's shelf: preparation, packing, export declaration, transit, import clearance and delivery. Any one can delay the rest, and each costs more to fix afterwards than to control before dispatch.
Read the guideIn this guide
- Key points
- 1. Before shipment: where delivery risk is actually created
- 2. Choosing the transport mode
- 3. Branded product and carrier acceptance
- 4. Packaging
- 5. Documents and import clearance
- 6. Lead time and tracking: managing the whole cycle
- 7. When something goes wrong
- 8. Pre-shipment checklist for buyers
- 10. Closing