You have seen the word "all-inclusive" before. It is used loosely by salespeople, and it often hides a graveyard of hidden charges. You sign the contract for a DDP price, feeling safe. Then the shipment arrives. You get a separate bill for the customs exam fee. Another for pallet exchange. Another for a congested port surcharge. You call the factory, and they say, "Sorry, those are destination charges, not included." Your supposedly "all-inclusive" price was full of holes. This is the bait-and-switch that makes smart buyers cynical. You need to know, with absolute certainty, what our DDP price actually covers.
Shanghai Fumao's DDP mode is genuinely all-inclusive for our standard door-to-door service to the contiguous United States. The price we quote includes the garment cost, ocean freight, insurance, US customs duties, the Merchandise Processing Fee, the Harbor Maintenance Fee, customs brokerage, and final trucking to your designated warehouse. We even absorb standard port terminal handling charges. If it is a routine cost to get the container from our factory to your door, it is in our price.
Where is the line? What rare exception might fall outside? Transparency is the foundation of trust, and I want to draw that line clearly. Let me walk you through exactly what our DDP invoice covers, and just as importantly, the few specific scenarios it does not cover. You will never receive a surprise bill from us because you will know the terms before you sign.
What Our Standard DDP Price Fully Covers
An all-inclusive DDP price is a promise. To trust that promise, you need to see the list. Our standard DDP quotation is broken down into these covered components. There is no mystery. You see the cost of the goods. You see the cost of the freight. You see the cost of the US government. You see the cost of the final truck. Everything is on the table.
Our standard DDP price comprehensively covers ten distinct cost elements. These are: the ex-works garment cost, origin trucking, export customs clearance, ocean freight, marine insurance, US import duty, the Merchandise Processing Fee, the Harbor Maintenance Fee, the single-entry customs bond, US customs brokerage, port terminal handling, and final delivery trucking to one commercial address. We quote, you pay, we deliver.
What Exactly Are the US Government Fees Included in Our DDP?
Many DDP quotes "include duty" but quietly leave the other government fees for you. The United States Customs and Border Protection does not just charge a duty percentage. There are two additional mandatory fees on virtually all formal entries, and they are often forgotten by factories who do not actually handle the import.
The Merchandise Processing Fee is 0.3464% of the entered value, with a minimum and maximum cap per entry. The Harbor Maintenance Fee is 0.125% of the entered value. These seem small. On a $50,000 shipment, they total about $235. A FOB buyer pays this to their broker as a separate invoice. A DDP buyer with an inexperienced factory often gets an angry email asking them to pay these fees before the container is released. Our DDP price includes both MPF and HMF. They are calculated into our quote. You never see a separate bill for them. You can verify these official fee rates directly on the CBP user fee page.
Does DDP Cover Marine Insurance and Port Handling?
Yes. A container falling overboard is a rare but real risk. A container being damaged during port handling is far more common. Standard ocean freight does not include full insurance. A FOB buyer must purchase their own cargo insurance separately, or risk a total loss. Our DDP quote includes All-Risk marine cargo insurance. We insure the full commercial invoice value of your shipment. If a container is lost or damaged in transit, the claim is our problem. Your goods are replaced, or your invoice is credited.
Furthermore, the port terminal in Los Angeles or Newark charges a fee simply to handle the container off the ship. This is the Terminal Handling Charge. It is a standard, unavoidable cost. It is included in our DDP price. We do not charge it back to you as a "destination fee." This is what genuine all-inclusive pricing looks like. Every physical and administrative handoff required to move the container from the vessel to the outbound truck is covered.
The Rare, Specific Exceptions: What Is Not Covered
Integrity is not about claiming to cover everything in the universe. It is about defining the boundary, so there are no surprises. Our DDP is genuinely all-inclusive for the standard, routine import process. There are three specific, rare exceptions that can incur an extra cost. These are not hidden profit centers. These are unpredictable government or consignee-driven events where we must pass through the exact cost, transparently.
Three specific, rare scenarios fall outside our all-inclusive DDP. First, an intensive US Customs exam involving a full devanning or laboratory test. Second, port or warehouse storage fees incurred because your receiving warehouse cannot accept the delivery within the free time. Third, a residential or limited-access delivery that requires a small truck or a lift-gate service. These are not profit items. They are specific, verifiable cost events that we document and pass through at our exact cost.
What Is a Customs Intensive Exam and Why Is It Separate?
CBP conducts various types of examinations. A standard VACIS X-ray scan or a tailgate exam is quick, non-intrusive, and often has no fee or a small fee we absorb. An Intensive Exam, also called a MET exam, is different. CBP flags the container for a full devanning. The entire contents are unloaded, opened, and physically inspected by officers at a Centralized Examination Station.
This process involves significant third-party costs: the CES facility fee, the labor to unload and reload the container, and the trucking diversion to and from the CES. This can cost $1,500 to $3,000 depending on the container size and the exam scope. This is an unpredictable, government-mandated cost event. We cannot pre-price it into a standard quote. If your container is selected for an Intensive Exam, we pay the CES invoice directly. We then provide you with a copy of that invoice and add the exact amount to your final balance. We add zero markup. It is a pure cost pass-through. This is a standard and fair industry practice, and you can read more about the CBP exam types.
What Happens If My Warehouse Cannot Accept the Delivery On Time?
The final trucking delivery to your door is included in our DDP price. The trucker provides a standard window for the delivery appointment, and your warehouse must be able to receive the goods during that window. If your warehouse rejects the appointment, is closed, or simply cannot unload the container, the trucker is forced to return another day.
The trucker will charge a "dry run" fee or a waiting time fee. The container may also need to be stored at a trucker's yard overnight, incurring a storage charge. These costs are a direct result of your receiving team's unavailability. This is not a cost of shipping the goods; it is a cost of the consignee not being ready. If this occurs, we again pass the exact trucker invoice to you. We can usually avoid this entirely by our logistics team confirming the delivery appointment with your warehouse manager a week in advance. Communication prevents this exception from ever happening.
Comparing a True DDP Invoice vs. a Hidden-Cost FOB Invoice
The only way to understand the true value of an all-inclusive DDP price is to compare the experience. An FOB quote is a fragment. A DDP quote is the whole. When you evaluate a DDP price in isolation, you might think it looks higher. When you place it next to the fragmented reality of an FOB shipment, with all its separate invoices, the all-inclusive model is often both cheaper and dramatically easier to manage.
The true cost of an FOB shipment is revealed only after the goods arrive. You receive five to seven separate bills from different parties. You must reconcile each one against your budget. Our DDP model collapses all of that into one single, predictable invoice. The comparison between the single DDP invoice and the pile of FOB invoices is the clearest proof of what "all-inclusive" actually means for your business and your accounting team.
How Many Separate Invoices Does a Typical FOB Shipment Generate?
A single FOB shipment from a typical Asian factory will generate a minimum of five separate financial transactions, each with its own invoice and payment process. First, the factory invoice for the garment FOB cost. Second, the freight forwarder's invoice for ocean freight. Third, the customs broker's invoice for the entry filing and bond. Fourth, the CBP bill for duties, MPF, and HMF. Fifth, the drayage trucker's invoice for delivery. If the container was examined, there is a sixth exam invoice. If it sat in port for three days, there is a seventh demurrage invoice.
Each invoice arrives at a different time, from a different company, and must be validated and paid separately. For a small to mid-sized brand owner without a full logistics department, this is a significant administrative burden and a major source of unbudgeted cost. Our single DDP invoice replaces all of this. You make one payment to us. We handle the rest. This is the administrative simplicity that comes with a true all-inclusive partnership.
Why Does DDP Often Have a Lower True Landed Cost Than FOB?
The purchasing power of a high-volume, integrated logistics operation is far greater than that of a single brand. When you buy FOB, you are buying freight, brokerage, and trucking as a retail customer. You pay the market spot rate. We buy these services as a wholesale customer. We consolidate the freight of multiple clients. We have annual, negotiated rates with carriers, brokers, and truckers.
As I have mentioned before, we often see a DDP price that is equal to or lower than the total landed cost a brand would pay on FOB, once every invoice is tallied. The same brand that pays $2.50 per unit for freight on a spot basis might be part of our consolidated container at an effective rate of $1.80 per unit. This logistics efficiency is passed through to you. The all-inclusive price is not just simpler. It is frequently the more cost-effective option. This is the structural advantage of partnering with a factory that has internalized its supply chain.
Conclusion
Is our DDP mode truly all-inclusive? Yes. For the standard, routine import of apparel from our factory to a commercial address in the contiguous United States, the price we quote is the price you pay. It includes the garment. It includes the ocean freight and insurance. It includes every single US government fee: duty, MPF, and HMF. It includes the customs brokerage and the bond. It includes the port handling and the final truck delivery. There are no hidden handling fees, no surprise port surcharges, and no separate broker bills.
The only rare, specific exceptions are a CBP intensive exam, a storage fee caused by your warehouse's unavailability, or a residential delivery surcharge. These are external, verifiable cost events that we pass through transparently, at our exact cost. We define the boundary clearly so you have absolute certainty.
If you have been burned by a "DDP" quote that turned out to be full of holes, I invite you to test our definition of the term. Send us the specifications of a style you currently import. We will send you back a single, all-inclusive DDP price. I will personally guarantee that the number on that quote is the only number you will pay for the standard delivery.
Contact our Business Director, Elaine, at elaine@fumaoclothing.com. She will prepare your DDP quotation with a full, itemized breakdown of every covered cost. Let us show you what genuine, transparent, all-inclusive logistics really feels like.
