A large amount of goods were detained! Another group of people were cleared out

There is no limit to the industry!

In recent years , negative news surrounding cross-border logistics can be found everywhere. Before the first half of this year, there have been many cases of logistics companies going bankrupt. Running away with the money, crowdfunding for goods, and under-declaration are no longer new things. Recently, the big melon of US terminal delivery - the account of water leakage has once again been boiling in the cross-border circle. Even though it has long been known that logistics operations are varied, industry insiders are still shocked: it turns out that bad freight forwarders can play like this. Under the strict inspection of UPS and others, a large number of goods have been detained. This big purge means that another group of people will be swept out.

Cross-border logistics is the most basic industrial link derived from the cross-border e-commerce industry. The overall development quality of the cross-border e-commerce industry is highly dependent on the quality of cross-border logistics services. When the city gate is on fire, the fish in the pond will be affected. If the logistics are poor, the goods of cross-border sellers are also in danger. This time, the "water account" is causing a large number of sellers to suffer innocently.

The "unexpected disasters" faced by sellers recently are far more than this one. The inspection rate of the US Customs and other customs has increased significantly, and it is inevitable that goods will be detained and time delays will be delayed. In addition, Amazon's LAX9 and other warehouses continue to be overwhelmed, and many warehouses need to be booked 2-3 weeks in advance, which is comparable to the peak season. Amazon's new policy in May also caused a large amount of goods to be piled up in overseas warehouses and unable to be delivered. Because the goods cannot be warehoused in time, sellers will inevitably face a series of troubles in the future.

A large number of goods were detained! UPS and other companies strictly investigate "losing accounts" , stealing areas, stealing weights and other illegal operations

The latest major reshuffle in the freight forwarding industry is coming this year.

Recently, many American express delivery companies such as UPS and FedEx are undergoing major rectification. A warning entitled " UPS Risk Warning " has been widely circulated in the cross-border circle. The content shows:

UPS has recently been conducting a major overhaul, strictly investigating issues such as stealing areas, stealing weights, and account leakage. If caught, there will be a series of serious consequences, including minor consequences such as paying additional freight, downgrading discounts, and stopping the warehouse's full container delivery service. The face orders for account leakage may not be scanned online, will not be delivered, and may be destroyed. In serious cases, you may be prosecuted and held accountable for related legal responsibilities, and the delivery warehouse address will be blacklisted.

It has been a while since the "leakage account" incident started to ferment, and it is still causing a lot of discussion in the cross-border circle, which shows the seriousness of the matter.

It is understood that "water-laden accounts" are simply fake accounts or accounts that do not pay. The waybills, order numbers and codes arranged by UPS are all regular. Some bad freight forwarders take advantage of loopholes or time differences such as the US UPS and other express delivery companies delivering first and then charging, and domestic sellers paying first and then shipping, to open accounts registered by empty companies and get super low discounts. When UPS finds out and holds them accountable, or before that, they cancel the accounts, or find agents or logistics companies to sell the accounts to these "suckers". They themselves will not pay the freight, and walk away after the truth is revealed.

According to a detailed interpretation by industry insiders, as the market conditions are getting worse and worse this year and it is now the off-season for sales, the shipment volume of cross-border sellers is not too large, and the entire freight forwarding circle has become more and more involuted upstream and downstream. When the market is sluggish, more bad freight forwarders begin to think crookedly, and the phenomenon of soliciting goods at low prices is more prevalent. Operations such as collecting general goods to make way for dangerous goods and privately changing delivery channels have become too much, and they want to do something bolder. The prevalence of "water-running accounts" is the product of an abnormal environment.

This move reduces the delivery cost several times at once, or it can be said to be making money out of nothing, and the profits obtained will increase a lot out of thin air.

UPS will deliver the goods normally without your knowledge, but you will not receive the money when the charges are deducted. Only then will you realize that you have been cheated. If you cannot find the illegal freight forwarder to take responsibility in the end, you will inevitably face a certain degree of loss.

Obviously, UPS is not willing to be the "sucker" all the time. Some freight forwarders said that several Los Angeles overseas warehouses have been disqualified from picking up goods by UPS or are being investigated by the FBI. There are also reports that the scope of the seizure is very wide . UPS seized 170 containers in one day. If it can't find the account holder, it will arrest the warehouse staff.

Judging from the list of accounts leaked from the cross-border circle, many accounts have been blacklisted! UPS is still investigating this phenomenon. Those warehouses suspected of skirting the law must ask UPS managers to confirm before delivering goods. The addresses of problematic warehouses will be permanently blacklisted.

According to insiders, the illegal operation of "water-trapping accounts" is not a new practice, but has always existed. In addition to UPS, FedEx, USPS, etc. also have this situation. In addition to water-trapping accounts, technical accounts, stealing areas, stealing weights, and fake delivery orders are also the focus of this rectification.

1. A technical account refers to directly using a third-party account or putting the bill under someone else's account name, so that UPS can deliver the goods "for free" and you can pay the shipping fee paid by the seller.

2. Fake waybills refer to bad freight forwarders making fake waybills directly according to the UPS waybill numbering rules to make them look real.

3. Stealing the area refers to changing the shipping address. Some bad freight forwarders will try every means to change the shipping address so that the starting point and the destination are closer. As the distance is shortened, the freight to be paid will be lower.

4. Weight theft refers to concealing the size and weight in order to pay less freight.

In short, bad freight forwarders take risks just to make more money, and they don’t seem to care about the adverse impact this will have on the industry. Although these violations have always existed, before this year, UPS, FedEx, USPS, etc. did not conduct strict inspections, and the goods of the fraudulent accounts could be returned after being inspected, which means that the seller still has a chance to get the goods back.

The sellers who were innocently affected by bad freight forwarders this year were not so "lucky".

As early as February this year, the United States has sent out signals that it will severely crack down on "water accounts" and "fake shipping bills". According to the new plan submitted by the United States Postal Service to the federal government on handling fake shipping bills and packages:

In recent years, there has been a surge in the number of false mailing labels found in the mail stream. Intentionally using or selling a forged mailing label is a crime. In response to this problem, the Postal Service is filing a Federal Register notice to amend the U.S. Postal Service’s mailing standard, the Domestic Mail Manual (DMM®), to allow the Postal Service to discard items found with false mailing labels.

The Postal Service's proposed changes will provide the public with notice regarding the disposition of items with false mailing labels. Under the revisions to DMM 604.8.4, items found in the mail with false mailing labels will be considered disposed of and may be opened and disposed of at the Postal Service's discretion.

It is worth noting that the waybills with BILL TO 3RD PARTY are basically problematic waybills. Sellers can check the tracking number . If there is only bill making information and scanning information, but no updated logistics transportation information, or the goods are delivered to Kansas and the recipient's name is fraud, this means that the goods have been detained and are likely to be transferred to UPS's destruction warehouse.

For many sellers, this is undoubtedly an unprovoked disaster. UPS is cracking down on those who evade freight. Many overseas warehouse addresses have been blacklisted and goods cannot be taken out. If it is only a small loss, they may be able to accept it, but if the amount of goods affected is large, the seller's loss will be very large. People are greedy, and the logistics chaos is far from completely gone. This requires sellers to be vigilant at all times and enhance their ability to distinguish bad freight forwarders.

Industry insiders said that the delivery price of the water-transfer account is indeed much cheaper , and sellers must be careful to avoid minefields when choosing low prices. In addition, good storefronts and warehouses may also be a means for logistics companies to deceive sellers. The most important thing for sellers when looking for logistics companies is to look at the number of changes in the company's registration information!

Will the freight forwarding industry be reshuffled this year? "Water-laundering accounts" are cleaning out a large number of people

There are many other bad logistics operations by bad freight forwarders. Let's review the five tricks used by bad cross-border logistics companies to cheat sellers:

1. The air sent a slow line to the Matson Clippers. Although this kind of operation can be easily seen through, some people will still be fooled;

2. The Matson Express ship is converted to a Yantian ordinary ship. This is a very common pitfall in the current market. The sellers who are affected will inevitably experience delays in the transportation of their goods.

3. Send a small portion of the seller's goods to Meisen and most of them to Yantian. When the seller asks about it, use "UPS missed the scan" as an excuse;

4. Changing product names and quantities, that is, concealing or underreporting. Some logistics companies have always been lucky enough to increase the chances of customs inspection;

5. Dangerous goods, chemicals and e-commerce goods are mixed. The freight forwarding agent will quote an incredibly low price. Even if the tax rate or number of pieces is changed, it is impossible to achieve such a low price. It is very likely that the bad logistics company is playing tricks, filling the warehouse with e-commerce goods and then loading dangerous and sensitive goods.

Another incident that has been widely criticized recently is the "unscrupulous overseas warehouse stealing and selling sellers' goods" incident.

"The freight forwarders cooperate with overseas warehouses or trucks in the United States and other countries to steal and sell goods, and then put the blame on Amazon and other platforms. When the sellers ask about the goods, they say that Amazon lost the goods." In fact, this situation is not uncommon. Many unscrupulous freight forwarders even set up a group specifically for reselling goods, and publicly stated in the group that they want to resell the goods of a certain seller .

Many sellers’ goods were stolen and sold inexplicably, and they filed claims with Amazon without knowing it. If Amazon ultimately determines that the claims were made in bad faith, they may very likely face having their accounts blocked.

How should sellers avoid this situation? A professional said that cross-border logistics pitfalls are hard to guard against. Sellers can only pay attention to details when signing contracts in advance, or buy insurance. However, insurance often does not pay full compensation. Moreover, the scope of sellers’ losses is difficult to define. For example, how should subsequent losses such as sellers running out of stock, store listing declines, and performance declines due to logistics delays be calculated?

Many times, bad freight forwarders will lure sellers under the guise of low prices, and the issue of low logistics prices has repeatedly sparked discussions. Two of the low-price incidents became popular because they were too outrageous.

The first scenario is a seller asking a freight forwarder: "One of your colleagues told me that the regular ship from Matson is 9.9% for double clearance and tax included, and it will be delivered to the door. Is that true?" The freight forwarder replied to the seller, "Brother, you are wrong. He and I are not in the same industry. I am a freight forwarder and he is a fraudster . "

The second scenario is that a logistics company said that it would deliver directly to nine FBA warehouses in the United States for free. There are also rebate activities for new customers.

These are just the tip of the iceberg of logistics chaos, which reflects many problems. The first leg of the process is involuted, and the overseas warehouses, trucks and other links at the end of the delivery are also involuntarily entangled, and profits are extremely compressed. Freight forwarders who are unwilling to accept this will try various tricks to "make money", and in the end, the unlucky ones are the sellers and the entire logistics circle.

"I'm a serious truck driver, but now I'm about to be driven out by these bad coins and have no way out." A freight forwarder said that nowadays, he often feels powerless because "the regular business cannot compete with those who do unconventional things." Many of his peers are killing the goose that lays the golden eggs and directly using the most unconventional and fastest ways to get the money, regardless of the long-term development of the industry, nor do they care about the adverse effects this will have on their regular logistics peers.

“Many freight forwarders pick up goods at low prices, then abandon them once the goods arrive in the United States, and threaten the sellers to pay again before they can pick up the goods. Every industry will have some people who are eager for quick success and have no bottom line, so the main thing is to stick to principles and bottom lines.” Another freight forwarder said that cross-border logistics will always be a promising industry, and it is people who are the bad guys. This “water account” incident has once again sparked discussion, which actually means that the industry has once again turned a corner. After the pain, a number of industry tumors will be cleaned out, which is good for the industry and for sellers.

How can cross-border logistics be improved?

A freight forwarder believes that at present , there are many cross-border e-commerce logistics service providers in China, but there is no official agency or authoritative industry organization to authoritatively count and publish indicators such as ticket volume and business income. The overall market is characterized by low concentration, many industry participants, and dispersed market share. At present, the entire industry has no perfect regulatory agency and no mature and well-known platform to expose unscrupulous service providers. If there is a third-party regulatory agency, it will definitely play a positive role in the healthy development of the entire industry.

In addition, freight forwarders themselves must face differentiated seller and buyer demands on the basis of simply pursuing scale and price advantages, and continue to improve the scalability of the global service chain and the stability of the supply chain system.

Many Amazon warehouses are out of stock! Customs inspection rates soar!

In fact, cross-border sellers have been facing challenges recently. In addition to UPS, FedEx, USPS and other companies strictly investigating accounts that have lost money, Amazon's warehouses are also seriously overwhelmed. According to sellers' feedback, warehouses in the western United States are particularly overwhelmed.

Specifically, LAX9 and SBD1 do not allow direct delivery, and there are very few pallet truck appointments. The delivery time is expected to be delayed by up to 20 days. ONT8/LGB8 do not allow direct delivery, but pallet truck appointments are normal. LAS1 has serious appointment changes/deletions, and it is difficult to get an appointment .

It is not difficult to find that affected by Amazon's new regulations in May, most Amazon warehouses in the United States (especially the western United States) have experienced varying degrees of contract deletion and modification. Amazon frequently deletes the ISA reservations for goods that are about to enter the warehouse, which has caused a large amount of goods to be piled up in US overseas warehouses and cannot be delivered.

In addition, the inspection rates of customs in various countries have also increased.

The US Customs has been inspecting goods more frequently than before. It is rumored that 7 new inspection sites have been opened, and the inspection rate has increased by 15%. Many freight forwarders said that from the beginning of this year to now, the inspection rate of the US Customs has remained high. Children's products and children's toys are the hardest hit areas for inspection. In addition to testing the safety of these goods, under-declaration is also a focus of inspection. In addition, Canadian Customs and European Customs are also focusing on under-declaration. Once discovered, they will face the problem of tracing and inspection and tax payment.

In addition to focusing on toy products, European customs also pay attention to lamps , textiles and electrical appliances . In addition, customs clearance must use customs codes that are consistent with the products. If a low tax rate is used that does not match the product customs code, customs will consider it as deliberate concealment and confiscate the goods.

It is worth noting that a new round of tax reforms in Belgium is coming. On June 1, all local customs declarations for goods will be cancelled and the previous positive declaration will be calculated based on the sales link price. For high-value goods and high-tax goods, this round of tax reforms will inevitably lead to a high inspection rate. This means that the risk of gambling tax is getting higher and higher.

When talking about Belgium, it is easy for people to think of the "Belgian Liege" incident not long ago.

At that time, the European Public Prosecutor's Office ( EPPO) launched a surprise inspection operation targeting VAT fraud cases involving Chinese exporters, and conducted 10 searches at Liege Airport and several logistics warehouses in Zeebrugge.

During the search, four suspects were arrested, including two persons in charge, an accountant and an employee. Investigators seized four cars (including Audi and BMW), more than a dozen bank accounts and corresponding computer equipment from the homes of the four people. According to the investigation data, from 2019 to 2022, the suspects caused tax evasion losses of approximately 303 million euros and tariff losses of 6.6 million euros, involving a variety of crimes including forged customs documents, VAT fraud, illegal money laundering and participation in crimes.

This incident caused widespread discussion at the time, and the main theme of the discussion was still the issue of "compliance" and that sellers should screen more and assess the comprehensive capabilities of logistics providers when choosing logistics providers. At that time, an industry insider gave practical suggestions for the Belgian inspection. The editor believes that the sharing of this industry insider is not outdated and is applicable to multiple customs. You can take a look:

( 1) Comply with regulations and do not deliberately conceal, underreport or miss report. Frequent cases of bankruptcy and the tracing back of customs clearance records by European and British customs in recent years indicate that compliance declaration is a trend.

( 2) Customs inspection may be conducted during self-tax clearance, but it is just a normal inspection of customs declaration at each customs checkpoint. As long as the declaration is truthful, it will be released after inspection. Compared with the risk of goods being fined and confiscated, the risk of customs inspection is much lower.

( 3) The Belgian customs focuses on declarations. Recently, the customs has focused on spot checks on some products with higher tax rates, such as clothes, bags, and shoes. Sellers are advised not to use the wrong customs code, use false sales links, or declare unit prices. The customs code should be consistent with the actual material of the goods, and do not deliberately use a customs code with a low tax rate.

( 4) For products with a zero tax rate, do not deliberately increase the declared amount just because there is no tariff. Just make a false declaration and it will be reasonable. If you deliberately make a false declaration, it will also cause customs inspection and you may be fined for concealing the declaration.

In summary, whether it is the "leakage account" problem or the customs inspection problem, it reveals that the cross-border logistics market is not peaceful this year. At this time, compliance is undoubtedly a "talisman".