Two forwarders quote your shipment. Both say all-in. The difference is $900.
Nine times out of ten, the gap isn’t margin and it isn’t efficiency. It’s scope. The cheaper quote is all-in on a smaller definition of “all”.
What DDP means under Incoterms 2020
Delivered Duty Paid places maximum obligation on the seller. The seller is responsible for:
- Export clearance in China
- Main carriage, ocean or air
- Import clearance into the United States
- Duties and import taxes
- Delivery to the named destination
That’s the rule. Everything below is about what the rule doesn’t settle. Who is legally on the entry: what DDP actually covers, and who is the Importer of Record. How the six cost layers sit inside the number: how DDP pricing from China to the US actually works.
The charges that sit outside almost every quote
None of these are hidden fees in a deceptive sense. They’re contingent charges — they only trigger if something happens. But a quote that excludes all of them is not cheaper than one that includes them. It’s a different quote.
| Charge | Triggered when |
|---|---|
| Customs exam / X-ray | CBP selects your container for inspection |
| Demurrage | Container sits at port beyond free days |
| Per diem / detention | Container returned to the line late |
| Warehouse storage | Cargo waits for a delivery appointment |
| Redelivery | First delivery attempt fails |
| Appointment failure | FBA or 3PL slot missed; must rebook |
| Liftgate | No loading dock at destination |
| Residential delivery | Destination isn’t a commercial address |
| Inside delivery | Carrier must bring goods past the threshold |
| Oversize / overweight | A piece exceeds carrier limits |
| Irregular packaging | Cargo can’t be handled by standard equipment |
| Remote area | Destination outside the standard service zone |
| Address change after pickup | You redirect the shipment |
| Fuel and peak season surcharges | Carrier applies them |
| Duty rate movement | Rate changes between quote and entry |
Most shipments trigger none of these. Some shipments trigger four. How a rate move on the last line is allocated: is Section 301 included in your DDP price?
The three that catch people most often
Demurrage and per diem. Free days are finite. If your delivery appointment is three weeks out and the container lands today, the clock is running. This is the most common way a clean DDP price becomes an expensive one, and it’s usually caused by planning, not by the forwarder.
Appointment failure at FBA. A missed slot means the cargo goes to storage and the appointment gets rebooked into whatever window is next available. On a replenishment shipment timed against a stockout, this compounds fast.
Liftgate and residential. If you’re delivering to a warehouse with a dock, neither applies. If you’re delivering to a small unit, a self-storage facility, or a home office, both may. Worth checking before you compare quotes, not after.
The other exclusion nobody mentions: the work that isn’t done
Some low quotes are low because the provider isn’t doing things that cost labour hours:
- No physical check of cargo against the packing list on arrival
- No assessment of whether packaging will survive a container
- No verification that certifications, MSDS, or authorisation letters exist before booking
- No check of wood packaging treatment and marking
- No review of whether the declared description matches the goods
Skipping all five is a real cost saving — for the forwarder. It becomes your cost the first time one of them would have caught something. Same pattern when five quotes land 40% apart: is the cheapest freight quote the best one?
How to close the gap in one message
Send every forwarder the table above and ask: which of these lines are not in your quote, and what does each cost if it triggers?
That single question does more to normalise competing quotes than any amount of negotiation. It also tells you something about the forwarder independent of the answer — how fast and how completely they reply.
Then add two more:
- What is your free time at destination, and what’s the daily rate after?
- What happens if the delivery appointment is missed?
What we include, and what we don’t
Our quotes state the scope explicitly, including free time and the daily rate after it. Contingent charges are listed with their triggers, so you know what could happen rather than discovering it later.
We also do the five checks above on every shipment. That’s part of why we’re rarely the cheapest quote — and it’s a trade we’ll explain rather than hide.
Send a quote you’ve already received
We’ll tell you what’s in it and what isn’t. Free, no obligation. Mon–Sat, 08:00–22:00 China time (GMT+8).
Surcharge names and triggers vary by carrier and lane. Current as of August 2026. This is general information, not legal advice.