Blind Shipment

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What is it
Who need it
When is necessary

What is a Blind Shipment?

A blind shipment is an LTL shipment where the shipping address, the consignee address, or both, are altered to keep their identity hidden from the opposite party. This means that a blind shipment could have the shipper address hidden to the consignee, the consignee address hidden to the shipper, or both addresses hidden to both shipper and consignee. A blind shipment is an additional service (like Tradeshow Shipping), meaning the freight carrier will charge an extra fee if you want your shipment to be blind.

Who need blind shipping ?

The blind shipments are requested by distributors or those who are doing middleman business.

Anyway, if you are the one who want to send goods to customers directly from your suppliers, blind shipping is necessary to consider.

When is a Blind Shipping necessary?

Depending on who is setting up the shipment, a blind shipment would be necessary to hide the identity of the shipper or consignee. It?s most often employed when a shipment is coming directly from a manufacturer or other third party. Shippers will often ship an item directly from the manufacturer in an attempt to keep costs down, and hiding the shipping address from the consignee ensures that the consignee will not go directly to the manufacturer in an effort to cut out the third party.

How do I make my shipment Blind?

Because blind shipping use multiple BOLs, things can get tricky, so it?s best to get your freight broker?s help during the process. For a typical blind shipment you will need to create two different BOLs. The first will be used by the shipper at the time of pickup. The second BOL will be used by the carrier at the time of delivery. If the shipper is the blind party, the first BOL will be known as the ?blind BOL,? or the ?dummy BOL,? while the second BOL will be the ?real BOL.? Conversely, if the consignee is the blind party, the first BOL will be the real BOL, and the second BOL will be the dummy BOL. Once the shipment is picked up and in transit, the carrier will switch the BOLs to ensure that the shipment is picked up and delivered to the correct addresses. Most carriers simply require notification that the shipment will be blind, however some carriers do have paperwork that will need to be filled out to confirm the process.

1. Amend shipper & consignee

Change the shipper and consignee is the first job for us.

We will offer H/BL.

Shipper : Your supplier
Consignee : You

2. Change Docs and Remove Marks

Blind shipping is to protect your business secret.Just a blind shipment requires careful mind. Every details must be considered, otherwise, all the previous efforts could be wasted.

Remember the identity : company name, logo, contact information, etc. Don’t use your China supplier’s docs, and never send them to your client by mistake.

We will need to change to use your own Packing List and Invoice and other documentations.One more thing, remove any other shipping marks or labels which show the supplier’s information.

Just make sure your client won?t ever find any information related to your suppliers.

Double blind shipping

A double blind shipment is a more advanced type of blind shipping.

There are two characteristics:

your supplier is unaware of where a shipment will be delivered to
your client is unaware of where the shipment is coming from.

In other words, both your supplier and your client’s identity must be protected in a double-blind shipment.

Only we freight forwarder and you know where the shipment comes from and deliver to.

Important

Double blind shipping is more difficult to handle than blind shipping.

In order to operate a double blind shipment, three conditions must be met.

You deal with your China suppliers under Incoterm EXW.
Your China supplier do not need tax rebate when Customs clearance.
We handle the completed door to door shipping.

Can shipping blind be 100% guaranteed ?

Unfortunately, No.

Despite we can remove visible identification mark, the risks of information leak out still exists.

For example, when a wicked supplier put their name card in the product boxes on purpose, client will then know where the goods come from.

In this situation, there is nothing we can do since we can?t check every box.