Cross border troubles continue, with freight forwarders' arrears exceeding 20 million yuan

Exposure of dishonest list

With the accelerated development of the cross-border freight industry worldwide, various market disruptions have followed.

Recently, the Ningbo International Freight Forwarders Association published a Notice on Forwarding the List of the Maritime Freight Forwarders and Multimodal Transport Dishonest Executees of Ningbo Maritime Court (April 2024) on its official website, 106 dishonest freight forwarders and shippers were exposed at one fell swoop.

Ningbo Maritime Court Announces the List of Dishonesty Source: One Shipping

It is worth mentioning that, This exposure of dishonest enterprises is the largest centralized exposure of dishonest freight forwarders and cargo owners by the domestic freight forwarding industry association based on the punishment result of the maritime court this year, Many of them are still in arrears.

Specifically, In the list of persons to be executed this time, there are three enterprises whose executed amount has reached the level of ten million, among which an international shipping agency in Ningbo owes the highest amount, up to 22033166.24 yuan. As of January 8, 2024, the Ningbo Maritime Court has obtained more than 1.8 million yuan from the company after execution, and has frozen an insurance policy of Shen Moumou, the company's principal. At present, there is still a large amount of outstanding money.

of course, Every industry has its own black sheep. This time, there are not only thunder freight forwarders on the list, but also many shippers facing high execution standards. For example, a medical device limited liability company in Zhejiang has accumulated a debt of more than 10.1 million yuan, and an innovative technology company in Hangzhou has a debt of more than 7 million yuan. It can be seen that both freight forwarders and sellers should be vigilant in the process of finding logistics partners.

The owner enterprise does not repay tens of millions of arrears Source: One Shipping

Consignors and freight forwarders are constantly in dispute

in fact, With the closer cooperation between cross-border e-commerce and freight forwarders, there are more and more friction between cargo owners and freight forwarders about profits and costs. The cases involved in the above list are just the tip of the iceberg.

Not long ago, a freight forwarding boss revealed that another seller maliciously defaulted on his thousands of dollars in logistics fees, which was a real old Lai. Moreover, this seller was also an expert in this field. So far, he has killed more than two or three freight companies. What's more, the rogue seller is also very good at handling the psychology of the freight forwarder. He specifically deadbeats the bill with a small amount of money, collecting only a few thousand yuan each time. Most freight forwarders often choose to swallow their pride after considering the cost of litigation.

Rogue sellers are in arrears with multiple freight forwarders Source: Big freight forwarders

of course, The tug of war between the cargo owner and the freight forwarder is not only staged in the domestic market, but also numerous cases related to freight forwarding disputes abroad.

In April this year, Flexport, an internationally renowned freight forwarder, formally filed a lawsuit against its big customer, Jiatong Tire, claiming $12.3 million at a sky high price. The reason for the lawsuit was that Jiatong Tire defaulted on a large amount of container detention fees, which caused great losses to Flexport. At present, Jiatong Tire has accepted most of the invoices issued by Flexport, and admitted about 7 million dollars of debt, but still refuses to pay any arrears to Flexport.

Flexport sued Jiatong Tire for tens of millions of claims Source: the loadstar

As the saying goes: "The world is bustling for profit, and the world is bustling for profit." The dispute between the freight forwarder and the owner is a game of cost and profit. Of course, no one is willing to compromise in front of their own interests.

However, it is justifiable to defend our own interests. However, if we make profits for ourselves by defaulting on freight, making false statements and concealing reports, and misappropriating taxes, it will greatly violate the bottom line of the cross-border industry, In the long run, cargo owners and freight forwarders will only lose both, not only the economy will be damaged, but also the overall reputation of the industry will be affected. It is always said that "compliance comes first when e-commerce goes to sea." In fact, both sellers and freight forwarders should regard this sentence as the cornerstone of business development and adhere to compliance management.

Author | Cross border Jun