Ocean transport naturally involves cost issues. In addition to the main ocean freight, various miscellaneous fees will be incurred at the loading port terminal and the destination port terminal. Understanding the composition of these freight and miscellaneous fees is very useful for controlling export costs and avoiding profit losses. Ocean freight is relatively fixed and is calculated based on the number of containers or cubic meters and weight (for LCL). There are many miscellaneous fees. The common ones are:
1. ORC: Origin Receiving Charge (ports in Guangdong Province or South China), terminal receiving fee.
2. SPSC: Shanghai Port Surcharge, which is the same as ORC.
3. PSS: Peak Season Surcharge.
4. DDC: Destination Delivery Charge, the delivery fee at the port (destination port) (actually the terminal surcharge at the destination port).
5. THC: Terminal (terminal) Handling Charge, terminal operation (hanging cabinet) fee.
6. BAF: Bunker adjusted factor fuel surcharge, also called FAF: Fuel Adjusted Factor.
7. DOC: Document fee.
8. DTHC: Destination THC Destination port fee is similar to DDC.
9. PCS: Port congestion surcharge.
Many of these fees are adjusted and charged by the shipping company/freight forwarder, which is quite flexible and can be passed on to either the shipper/receiver according to the freight forwarder’s wishes. Sometimes, freight forwarders will reduce ocean freight rates to attract business, and quietly increase the miscellaneous fees for later operations to make up for the losses.
Therefore, when a customer specifies a freight forwarder, or cooperates with a new freight forwarder, you must confirm the relevant fees in advance, and compare prices from three different companies to squeeze out the water in the quotation, so as not to be cheated. Freight forwarders like to use abbreviations in charging, so if you don’t understand something, you must clarify it with the freight forwarder.