A note from the desk, for anyone shopping on the entry fee. A Shenzhen seller moved a steady DDP flow to a broker quoting USD 75 per entry instead of 120. The first container cleared. The second one cost 1,100 dollars more than the difference in fees — and the seller never saw a broker invoice, because under DDP the forwarder pays it and folds it into the price.
The scene, in numbers
One 40HQ of small appliances, Shenzhen to Los Angeles, customs value USD 38,000. The cheap broker filed the entry, then disagreed with the classification the seller had used for two years. Two post-entry corrections at USD 45 each, one exam attendance charged by the hour, three days of demurrage while the file was reopened, and an ISF that went in late because nobody asked who was filing it. None of these lines existed on the quote.
What a broker actually charges for
- Entry fee — per entry, and the only line most sellers ever compare
- ISF filing — often quoted separately, sometimes not quoted at all
- Bond — single entry or continuous, and whoever holds it controls the file
- Post-entry correction — per change, and charged again if the change is challenged
- Exam attendance — per hour, from the moment the inspector is scheduled, not from arrival at the dock
- Release and delivery coordination — the calls that get a held container moving
Where the cheap fee comes from
A low entry fee usually means the broker files what you send and nothing else. Classification, origin and declared value are left as given. That is fine when your data is right, and expensive when it is not: the correction fee is small, but the duty difference, the interest and the days of storage are not. In DDP the seller carries all of it without seeing the itemised bill, because the price was agreed at the start.
Broker cost inside the landed cost
On the same shipment, brokerage is perhaps 1 to 2 percent of landed cost. Freight and duty are bigger. But brokerage is the line that can change the others: a classification decision moves the duty, a late ISF moves the sailing, an exam moves the demurrage clock. Judge a broker on the size of the number they control, not the number they charge.
Five questions before you switch
- Who classifies the goods — you, or the broker from your invoice description?
- What is charged for a post-entry correction, and what happens if the correction is refused?
- Is ISF included, and who is responsible for the ten data elements?
- Is the bond yours or the broker's, and can you move it if you leave?
- How is exam attendance billed — per hour, per visit, with a minimum?
A DDP price hides the broker fee inside a single number, which is exactly why it is worth asking about. Send us your current DDP rate and one recent entry summary on WhatsApp; we will show you which lines were bundled, and what the landed cost actually contains.