The entire door-to-door delivery chain for international express delivery involves multiple stages, including pickup, warehousing, air freight, customs clearance, and delivery. Deviations at any of these stages can lead to delays. The following five situations are common causes of delays, not only prolonging delivery cycles but also potentially resulting in additional costs or risks.
- Customs Clearance: The Most Common and Most Commonly Delayed Stage
Customs clearance is a crucial checkpoint for international express delivery and is also the stage with the highest probability of delays, accounting for over 40% of all delays. The core causes are document issues, cargo attributes, and customs inspections.
Missing or inconsistent documentation: This is the most basic and common mistake. If the commercial invoice information is incomplete (e.g., the name, quantity, declared value, or HS code of the goods is missing), the declared value deviates significantly from the actual value (a value too low may be considered “under-declaration” for tax evasion, while a value too high may trigger a tariff dispute), or sensitive goods lack compliance documentation (e.g., no MSDS report for electrically charged goods, or no registration certificate for cosmetics), customs will suspend clearance and require the consignee or sender to provide additional information for re-review. This process typically takes 3-7 days, but in severe cases, can take up to 2 weeks.
Goods subject to special regulations: Some goods, due to their specific categories, require additional customs or commodity inspection review. For example, food and pharmaceuticals require health and quarantine certificates, medical devices require pre-registration, and counterfeit or infringing goods may be detained due to intellectual property rights issues. These situations trigger “special customs clearance procedures,” which take 5-10 days longer than for ordinary goods and may even result in outright confiscation.
Random Inspection or Spot Check: Customs conducts random inspections on incoming goods (typically at a rate of 5%-15%). During peak seasons or sensitive periods (such as around holidays and during periods of tightening policies), the rate increases to over 20%. Once selected, goods must be transferred from the customs clearance warehouse to the inspection site, where they are unpacked and verified for product name, quantity, and ingredients. The entire process takes 2-5 days. If any issues are discovered during inspection (such as discrepancies with the declared content), the delay will be further extended.
II. Transportation and Space: The “Clustering Impacts” of Peak Season, Weather, and Transshipment
Transportation delays are often related to resource scheduling, natural factors, and transit connections. These issues are particularly prevalent during peak logistics seasons:
Air freight space shortages: Every year, around Black Friday and Cyber Monday (November-December), before Chinese New Year (January-February), and during major cross-border e-commerce promotions, global air freight demand surges, leaving airlines with insufficient space. Shipments may wait in line at the departure warehouse for 1-3 days awaiting loading. If space is not booked in advance, there may even be a situation where there is cargo but no space available, resulting in a 3-7-day delay in overall delivery time.
Weather and Force Majeure: International air freight relies on flights. Extreme weather (such as typhoons, blizzards, and sandstorms) can directly cause flight delays or cancellations, requiring shipments to wait for improved weather before rescheduling. Delays can range from one day to one week. Furthermore, force majeure factors such as earthquakes, wars, and epidemics can lead to airport closures and flight disruptions, often causing longer and unpredictable delays.
Transfer Connection Errors: Some international express deliveries require transit through hub airports (such as DHL via Cologne, Germany, and FedEx via Memphis, USA). If the preceding flight is delayed and the connection is missed, shipments will need to wait for the next available flight, typically resulting in a 2-4-day delay. If cargo sorting errors occur at the transit warehouse (such as affixing the wrong destination label), delays can extend to more than one week.
- Consignee Issues: An Overlooked Cause of “End-of-Delivery Delays”
Many people believe that delays are solely related to logistics companies. However, the recipient’s cooperation directly impacts final delivery efficiency, accounting for approximately 15% of all delays.
Incorrect or incomplete address information: This is the most common issue. If the address is missing key information (such as misspellings of the address, apartment number, or street name), or the phone number is invalid, the delivery driver cannot contact the recipient or locate the address. As a result, the shipment will be returned to the local distribution center, requiring the recipient to provide new information and re-delivery, resulting in a 3-5 day delay. Some delivery channels also charge a “re-delivery fee.”
Absentee or Refusal: If the recipient is not at the designated address during delivery (and there is no one to receive the shipment on their behalf), the delivery driver will leave a note, requiring the recipient to contact the logistics company to schedule a re-delivery, which can result in a 1-3 day delay. If the recipient refuses to accept a shipment due to reasons such as excessive tariffs or the shipment not meeting expectations, the shipment may be returned or destroyed, delaying delivery and incurring additional costs such as return shipping fees.
Special Destination Restrictions: Some countries/regions have specific requirements regarding the recipient’s identity or shipment. For example, Brazil requires the recipient to provide a tax ID (CPF/CNPJ) for customs clearance and delivery. If the recipient fails to prepare in advance, the shipment may be held after customs clearance and cannot be delivered until the information is provided, resulting in a delay of 5-10 days.
Fourth, Issues with the Shipment: Potential Delays at the Source
Cargo attributes such as type, packaging, and weight can directly impact the smoothness of the shipping process and may even trigger additional review:
Sensitive Goods Not Handled in a Compliant Manner: If sensitive goods such as batteries, liquids, food, or counterfeit brands are disguised as standard goods and shipped without being declared through compliant channels (such as the sensitive goods dedicated line), the goods may be detected during security checks or customs clearance and face detention and inspection. The sender will be required to provide proof of compliance or re-process sensitive goods, resulting in a 7-15 day delay. In serious cases, the shipment may be confiscated by customs without compensation.
Unqualified packaging: Packaging that is too soft (e.g., using only plastic bags for fragile items), poorly sealed (e.g., liquid leaks), or exceeding weight/volume standards can result in damage during transport, stuck in the sorting system, or temporarily handled due to non-compliance with air freight/delivery standards. The logistics company may instruct the sender to repack or arrange special transportation, resulting in a 2-5 day delay.
Overweight/oversized shipments not notified in advance: Overweight (e.g., a single shipment > 100kg) or oversized shipments (e.g., the combined length, width, and height > 300cm) require special loading and unloading equipment and air freight space. Failure to notify the logistics company in advance will result in delays of 3-7 days after the shipment arrives at the warehouse and the shipment will need to wait for appropriate space and resources.
- Holidays and Peak Seasons: Periodic Delivery “Congestion Periods”
Holidays and peak logistics seasons lead to resource shortages across the entire logistics chain, a foreseeable but difficult-to-avoid factor in delays:
Holiday Suspension: During statutory holidays in the origin or destination country (such as Chinese New Year, Christmas in the United States, and Easter in Europe), logistics companies suspend services in pickup, warehousing, customs clearance, and delivery. This creates a backlog of goods around holidays, requiring processing after operations resume, typically delaying delivery times by 3-7 days.
Peak Season Resource Congestion: During peak seasons for cross-border e-commerce (such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday, 618, and Singles’ Day) and before and after international exhibitions, cargo volumes surge, creating a shortage of air freight space, customs clearance personnel, and delivery capacity. Goods may wait in line for 1-3 days before being loaded, and customs clearance review cycles may extend from 1-2 days to 3-5 days. Last-mile delivery can also be delayed due to the high volume of packages, resulting in overall delivery times that are 5-10 days slower than usual.
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