About Plain Freight

Most of our customers are small-volume importers who are not running full containers: Amazon FBA sellers restocking one product line, Shopify DTC brands consolidating a few SKUs, TikTok Shop sellers importing inventory before fulfilling orders domestically, trading companies moving sample orders, and individual buyers importing a single high-value item -- a piece of industrial equipment, a custom furniture order, or a specialist component -- who need the customs handled correctly the first time.

What these shipments have in common is that they do not fit neatly into the tools large-volume freight operations are built for. A customs broker who handles mostly container freight will not spend time on a 30-kilogram air parcel. A freight app built for de-minimis parcels will not handle formal entry requirements. We are built for the middle: shipments that are too big for a consumer parcel service and too small for a container operation to prioritize.

Shipments range from 100 g parcels to approximately 2,000 kg. Air small-parcel service is live. Sea LCL is launching soon for cargo over 200 kg that can wait three to five weeks in transit.

You start by filling out the quote form with your shipment weight, dimensions, product description, origin city in China, and US delivery address. We review the commercial invoice and packing list you provide, confirm the HS code, calculate the applicable duty rate, and send you one all-in price before anything moves. That price covers freight, handling, US customs clearance, duties paid, broker coordination, and delivery to your door or Amazon FBA warehouse.

Once you approve the quote and pay, we coordinate pickup from your supplier or warehouse in China. From there we manage the freight, the export documentation, the US customs entry through a licensed broker, and the domestic delivery. We keep you updated at each stage: confirmation when the cargo departs China, tracking through clearance, and notification when delivery is complete.

If there are any issues at customs -- an examination request, a hold, or a request for additional documents -- we handle it with the broker. If the duty rate turns out to be different from what we quoted because of a reclassification or a new tariff, we tell you before the goods move, not after. No surprises after delivery.

Most freight quotes are not really quotes. They are estimates for the freight portion alone, with duties, broker fees, exam fees, port fees, and delivery costs invoiced separately after the goods land. For a first-time importer or a small business managing cash flow tightly, a shipment that was quoted at $400 can arrive with a $700 bill. That is not a freight cost problem -- it is a visibility problem.

Plain pricing means the number we give you before pickup is the number you pay. We include the duties in the quote by calculating them from the actual HS code and declared value. We include the broker fees because we work with the broker, not the other way around. We include delivery because the shipment is not done until the goods are at your door. If something changes -- a tariff update, a reclassification, a surcharge -- we tell you before the goods move so you can decide whether to proceed.

For small importers, this predictability is worth more than a slightly lower headline rate with unknown downstream costs. You can set your product pricing, manage your inventory budget, and plan your next order without waiting to see what the final logistics bill looks like. That is why we built the service this way, and it is the one thing we will not compromise on.