Foreign trade people tell their stories during the epidemic: In order to save a million-dollar order, the international station waiter and we staged a "life and death race" around the shipping schedule!

Despite this, in this "late spring cold" that has affected the foreign trade industry nationwide , heartwarming relay stories are still being played out on the road. Many people work silently in their positions to maintain the normal operation of the "lifeline" of foreign trade, and the stories told by these ordinary people are also worth seeing.

01 “We moved on the highway for three days and three nights, relying on a few steamed buns to survive”

Late at night on March 30, Mr. Sun, a truck driver who runs international terminal business all year round, received an order from his equipment to transport goods from Huaxi Village in Jiangyin to Shanghai Port. What he didn't expect was that in order to deliver the goods, this trip, which usually takes at most more than ten hours, would require him to stay on the highway for three days and three nights.

Narrator: Mr. Sun, a truck driver of a logistics company

Around 9pm on March 30th, I had just returned from Nanxun after hauling goods and was ready to take a break when the system reminded me that there was a job to transport goods from Huaxi Village in Jiangyin to Shanghai Port on the morning of the 31st. I frowned when I saw the message. Normally, by 4 or 5pm, the orders we need to do the next day have been assigned. It is rare for temporary jobs to come in after 9pm, and I had just finished a trip and wanted to take a break.

So I asked our team leader, "I just came back, can I give this order to someone else?" The team leader was a little embarrassed and told me: " This is a factory in Jiangyin. Business has been bad recently. This order is a big amount and it can save the company's life. The customer attaches great importance to it and hopes it can be shipped quickly!" However, the logistics have been unstable in the past few days. If I give it to other younger drivers, the customer will not be at ease.

After hearing what the captain said, I thought there was nothing we could do. We, the truck drivers, are also dedicated to our work. We know that it is not easy to do foreign trade in the current environment. We have to do it when the customers need us, and this is also an affirmation of our business capabilities.

So, on the evening of the 30th, I took a short rest and went to the port to pick up the container. According to our work process, the driver needs to pick up the empty container at the port, go to the destination factory to load the goods, and then transport it to the port to return the loaded container. The journey takes about 10 hours.

After taking the nucleic acid test, I set out from Shanghai Port at around 6am the next morning and headed straight to Jiangyin. At that time, Shanghai was already under lockdown, and I had some expectations, but I didn't expect the journey to be so tiring.

My trip was to Huaxi Village. It was smooth at first, and I drove all the way to Jiangyin. But when I arrived at Huashi Town, there was a sudden traffic jam. The traffic policeman who was maintaining order had red eyes, and it was obvious that he hadn't slept for a long time. He gave me a piece of chewing gum and told me to be mentally prepared, because the queue was at least more than 20 kilometers long .

I looked at the convoy behind me, and it was so long that I couldn't see the end of it. It was a little after 10 o'clock in the morning on the 31st. The first call from the factory liaison person came in and asked me where I was. I could only explain that there was a traffic jam on the road and asked me to wait patiently.

I don't know if you have ever experienced this kind of traffic jam. It seems that the whole team is not moving, but as long as the car in front of you turns on the lights and moves forward, you have to move forward. Sometimes it's good to move 100 meters in 5 minutes. It's quite boring, and I was very anxious because I was about to be late.

Around 10 p.m. on March 31, the convoy stopped moving, so I had to stop to eat something. I had made some preparations for the journey, but I didn’t expect it to take so long. I only had instant noodles and steamed buns with me, and after eating, I still couldn’t move, so I had to sleep.

I woke up at 5:00 in the morning because I was worried and couldn't sleep well. I kept dreaming. After waking up, I ate a few steamed buns and continued on my way. I thought the next day would be smoother, but the congestion continued and even worsened. Many times I couldn't move for nearly an hour. When I asked, I was told that the highway intersection was doing nucleic acid testing and it would take a long time. I began to realize that the situation was serious. This was too far from the time expected by the customer.

What should I do?

Sure enough, the next day, the customer became even more anxious. He called me three times from morning to noon, asking about the traffic situation here. The Ali waiter was also asking and at one point wanted to help me plan a new route and work together to find a solution. It seemed that they were more anxious than the customer.

In the afternoon, we three parties (driver, waiter, and customer) had a phone call. I told them honestly that I probably wouldn't be able to get to the factory today. Ali's waiter was also anxious and gave us two solutions. On the one hand, I asked me to sort out the model of the container, the size of the car, the precautions for packing, etc., and send them to the contact person at the factory so that they can prepare for packing and loading in advance. On the other hand, they contacted the other factory and handled the customs declaration in advance to help this customer save as much time as possible.

It was the only way. I spent the whole day of April 1 carefully moving the car. At 12 o'clock in the evening, the caravan stopped moving again. By then, I had finished my steamed buns. Fortunately, it was late at night. Listening to the Voice of China, I slept with my clothes closed until 5 o'clock in the morning. It might be related to the fact that the phone calls during the day solved some problems. I slept more soundly this time.

The next day, the car was finally able to move on the road! At that moment, I felt like a bird was released from a cage.

I arrived at the customer's factory at 10 am on April 2. Because of the detailed communication before, the factory did a lot of preparations, and the whole packing process was very smooth. It only took about an hour to load the goods. After that, I drove back at full speed. At this time, the traffic was a little better, and I rushed to Shanghai that night. If my nucleic acid test report had not expired, I would have to wait for the new report to come out the next afternoon before entering the port, and I would not have arrived at the port at 6 pm on April 3.

Later, I saw the information sent by the Alibaba International Station's clerk to the fleet, saying that they had completed the customs clearance operation within 48 hours at the fastest speed . It is said that this batch of goods has now been successfully loaded on the ship and is only waiting for the sailing date to arrive and head straight to the destination port.

I finally breathed a sigh of relief. This would have been unimaginable in the past, but a towing operation that usually only took 10 hours turned into a journey of more than 60 hours, which took me three days and three nights.

During this unforgettable shipment relay, I was deeply impressed by the foreign trade merchants who were anxious but still considerate of me, the Ali waiter who was more anxious than the customers and kept helping me find solutions, the volunteers who patiently guided me in the nucleic acid test, and the traffic policeman who was on duty all night to maintain order and gave me a piece of chewing gum.

02 “ At that moment, I was shocked and felt that the international station would definitely be able to help me get the job done. ”

Freight drivers are not the only ones who are under the pressure of traffic caused by the epidemic. Suzhou Beiang Technology Co., Ltd. is a technology company that specializes in non-consumable air purifiers. After the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020, Beiang turned to online sales, and its products were exported to industrial powers such as the United States, Germany, and Japan. However, under the pressure of the epidemic, Beiang, like all foreign trade companies of all sizes, felt the pressure of fulfilling contracts caused by the epidemic.

Narrator: Ms. Xu, a foreign trade salesperson of domestic air purifiers

On April 10, more than 5,000 air purifiers from Beon were shipped from Taicang Port to Tokyo, Japan. Japan is an important market that we have established with great difficulty. Our products are generally used in hospitals, schools, and shopping malls. In recent years, we have been using Alibaba International Station as our main market, and the sales in the Japanese market are also very good. We have loaded 9 high cabinets for this batch of goods, with a value of more than 1 million US dollars!

The order is of a large scale. According to the normal arrangement, the goods should be delivered to the port by trailer on the afternoon of April 9, and then the customs clearance and other operations will be completed, and the goods will be shipped the next day. This time, the buyer has a time requirement, so he repeatedly urged us to fulfill the contract on time, and the company also attaches great importance to it.

I prayed in my heart: there must be no unexpected situations in logistics.

But what you fear will come true. Due to the epidemic control, the truck trailer encountered highway congestion after leaving the warehouse on the afternoon of April 9, two hours later than the scheduled time. Because we have 9 containers, the number of containers is large, and there is traffic jam, so we did not enter the port until 6 pm. At this time, I received a message: saying that our customs declaration was abnormal.

At this time, I was a little anxious.

If we don’t solve it in time, we will miss the April 10th shipping date, and we will not be able to load the goods, so the goods cannot be delivered to customers on time. Under the epidemic, every fulfillment of the contract can be said to be the lifeline of the company, and this order is very large, which is very important to both us and the buyer!

So you can imagine how anxious I was when I saw the abnormality in the customs declaration. I contacted relevant personnel everywhere to understand the situation and think about how to solve the problem.

I couldn't even eat dinner, and I kept praying that I wouldn't miss the shipping date. After all, 2022 is too difficult. For us foreign trade people, every order is hard-won.

At this time, I suddenly received a call from Xiao Duan, a relevant staff member of Alibaba International Station. It turned out that when they were checking the system, they also discovered our abnormal situation. They took the initiative to contact the person in charge of logistics on our side at the first time, and then found us.

At that moment, I was suddenly shocked. I don't know why, but for no reason at all, I suddenly felt relieved, thinking that Xiao Duan from the International Station would definitely be able to help us get things done.

Then I calmed down and started to communicate with Xiao Duan word by word about the solution to the "abnormal customs declaration". I knew that I was not the only one facing these difficulties, big and small, and the Xiao Er of the international station was with us.

Xiao Duan assured me that after she understood the situation, she said she was handling it. Later I found out that she had been helping us coordinate with Nanjing Customs and Taicang Port all night long.

Because of the time wasted on the road, the previous customs declaration company was closed on weekends. After learning about this situation, Xiao Duan quickly helped us re-arrange an experienced customs declaration company, contacted the Nanjing customs that night, and coordinated with Nanjing Customs and Taicang Port. Finally, at around 11 o'clock in the evening , we successfully solved our customs declaration abnormality!

It was already late at night when the problem was solved, and we breathed a sigh of relief. I asked Xiao Duan if she had eaten dinner, and she said she had forgotten to eat and would order takeout later. I felt heartbroken instantly, as it was not easy for everyone.

The next day, Beon's 1 million USD order was shipped as scheduled. The million USD order was successfully fulfilled and the customer was very satisfied. Looking back now, it was not easy to ship this 1 million USD order. Thanks to the customs, the Ali International Station clerk, and the masters on the way. Thank God we finally caught up with the ship!

03 Things are slowly getting better

Whether it is Master Sun or Ms. Xu, their stories are just the daily routine of foreign trade people. In this extraordinary April, with the spread of the epidemic in Shanghai, foreign trade logistics in the Yangtze River Delta and even the whole country are under pressure.

On the evening of April 11, the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council for the COVID-19 Epidemic issued the "Notice on Effectively Ensuring the Smoothness of Freight and Logistics", requiring that vehicle registration and household registration should not be used as conditions for restricting traffic, and that restrictions should not be imposed on the passage and berthing of vehicles and ships. It is required to actively improve the situation in which freight is blocked, logistics is not smooth, and the supply of production and living materials in some areas is affected.

After the favorable policies were introduced, various provinces successively changed their previous control over trucks and quickly increased service measures for truck drivers. The severe logistics problems in the early stage have improved.

Some time ago, at the Hangzhou Expressway Exit, Master Chen, a 34-year-old truck driver, was stopped. The staff brought him two boxes of lunch. Before he could get back to his car to eat, Master Chen suddenly burst into tears and sobbed loudly, because he had been eating only bread in the car for 7 days and hadn't eaten rice for a week. It was really too difficult .

Despite this, after eating and crying, Master Chen still chose to walk into the cockpit firmly and took control of the steering wheel of his life again. In April 2022, this "late spring cold" for foreign trade people is still continuing, but if everyone does not stop because of this, we believe that the situation will gradually get better.

Alibaba International Station

foreign trade

Logistics and transportation