I'd like to see some comments from Buyers who deal with purchasing items shipped directly to them via overseas freight.
I haven't had a lot of experience in this area, but I did work with a company that was receiving freight directly from China for one of their product lines.
If you think tracking UPS and FEDEX shipments can be a chore, try getting information on, literally, a slow boat from China! The shipment was so far behind schedule that the backorders piled up like baseball fans on opening day.
We were constantly told the ship would arrive "tomorrow." As Annie once so eloquently put it, "Tomorrow is always a day away." Finally, the ship did arrive and then it was held up in port for several days. I assumed it was going through security checks, but then you read articles like this one that call security a "brittle system" and "a house of cards." CBS News says that 1 percent of containers are actually opened and checked so it seems unlikely that the checking process is adding that much time to any particular shipment.
If you want some insight into the latest pricing news in this area, check this article on overseas freight, which predicts a slow decrease in pricing. The article attributes the decreases in pricing to increased capacity. I think it's interesting because of the sharp increases in prices in other shipping methods due to fuel costs.
Have you had positive or negative experiences with overseas shipping?
» http://www.purchaserealm.com/2006/06/post_1.html from PurchaseRealm
Everywhere I look these days in the Procurement field, there is information about Sourcing in China. I almost wonder why it took us so long to get to this point of Buyers looking overseas directly. Clearly, our local US suppliers... [Read More]
Tracked on: June 29, 2006 1:58 PM | Permalink to Trackback