Shipping to Mexico, the container was detained. Through our efforts, it was released 10...

Shipping to Mexico, the container was detained. Through our efforts, it was released 10 days ahead of schedule.

Last July, I was entrusted by our Mexican client Antonio to ship a batch of goods to his designated port. Antonio requested that four factories share a container.

Everything went smoothly at first for this shipping to Mexico, until the customs clearance stage. Due to the suppliers' lack of professionalism, the customs documents were incorrect, and the product models were misdeclared. Since the goods were machinery, which is highly sensitive to model specifications, the entire container was detained by customs.

The suppliers didn't realize the severity of the situation, thinking it would be sufficient to simply provide the correct model information to customs. After my persistent communication and reminders, the suppliers finally understood the seriousness of the issue. By then, the goods had already been detained, and a complex review process was required before the container could be released.

The process involved customs inspections, submitting a detention application, approval, dismantling the container for inspection, canceling the shipping manifest, canceling the original customs declaration, and re-declaring the goods. Afterward, the container had to be moved from the customs detention area back to the terminal. Based on past experience, this would take at least a month. And since this shipment involved four different suppliers, it would take even longer.

From the initial inspection to the final release of the goods, although only one supplier's goods had an issue, customs required the entire container to be re-inspected. The documents from the four suppliers were submitted to the shipping company and customs no less than five times.

This was a critical moment to test the professionalism of a logistics company. If the company's staff is experienced, they can avoid unnecessary steps, handle the situation quickly, and minimize losses. Sunny Worldwide Logistics has over 20 years of experience in international logistics, with many of our staff having 7-8 years of hands-on experience. Successfully handling this incident proved that Sunny Worldwide Logistics is capable of managing unexpected situations like this.

How do we provide accurate documents? How do we ensure seamless communication with the shipping company and customs? How do we make sure that every piece of information provided by the suppliers is precise, especially when they are not very professional? These were the challenges we had to overcome. Many of the verification documents and paperwork were completed with the assistance of our company's operators and customs brokers. The suppliers were not very familiar with the process, so we handled most of it ourselves, achieving zero errors, which significantly saved time and costs.

Dealing with four suppliers made the process even more complex and cumbersome. Each supplier provided different documents, all of which had to be reviewed three times by the operators, customs brokers, and customs officers. Our company and the customs brokers repeatedly checked the documents to ensure that there would be no issues when submitting them to customs. Fortunately, the documents we provided were all approved by customs.

However, customs required the original stamped documents to be sent each time, which took a considerable amount of time and involved much more paperwork than a typical customs detention case.

Thanks to the combined efforts of our customs brokers and operators, the goods, which were originally expected to be released in a month, were actually cleared in about three weeks and ready to ship!

It's important to note that this was a self-prepared container, with high storage and container rental fees. So, I saved the client a significant amount in storage and rental costs, ensuring the container arrived at the port within Antonio's requested delivery time.

This situation highlights the critical role that operators and customs brokers play in the shipping process. It's the continuous training and accumulated experience within our company that has built the excellent team at Sunny Worldwide Logistics, enabling us to serve our clients effectively.

As a logistics company dedicated to reducing client costs and ensuring the smooth execution of each step in the transportation process according to client requirements, we demand that our operators possess exceptional professionalism, efficiency, logical thinking, and extensive experience. Only then can we ensure the safe and swift completion of the entire process. Sunny Worldwide Logistics, with 26 years of experience and trusted by industry giants like Walmart, Costco, and Huawei, is well-equipped to handle such unexpected situations with ease.