Door-to-door shipping from China: is it DDP or DAP?

A supplier says the price includes door-to-door shipping from China. Before accepting it, ask who will arrange import clearance and pay the import duties and taxes. The truck can reach your warehouse under either DDP or DAP, but the work and bills left for you differ.

DDP means Delivered Duty Paid; DAP means Delivered at Place. These are Incoterms® rules used in a sale contract. “Door to door” describes a transport service; the description alone does not settle the terms of your purchase.

Start with a delivery you can picture

Suppose you are buying 120 stackable metal garden chairs from a Chinese factory for your own warehouse. This is a hypothetical order, not a customer case. The supplier offers one product price plus a separate “door-to-door” shipping total.

You want the chairs available for sale on Monday. Your warehouse has a ground-level entrance, no loading dock and limited receiving hours. The quote does not say whether import taxes are included or whether the truck has equipment to lower the pallets.

Discuss how the goods will enter the destination country and how you will receive them. Give the supplier your postcode, entrance restrictions and receiving hours, then request a named delivery point and the applicable Incoterms edition.

A contract entry should identify the rule and the agreed address or point, followed by “Incoterms® 2020.” Use your actual receiving details. Avoid putting only a country or city after DDP and assuming everyone has agreed which warehouse entrance is included.

DDP and DAP: which import jobs remain yours?

Under the standard DDP rule, the seller handles import clearance and bears applicable import duties and taxes. Under DAP, the buyer handles import clearance and those import charges. In both, the agreed destination can be your warehouse. ICC’s official rules explain the allocation and its qualifications.

For the chair order, “DAP to our warehouse” means you need a workable clearance plan before the shipment arrives. Ask your destination broker what information it needs and when. Give the seller the contact details for coordination, and budget for the import amounts separately.

If the seller quotes DDP, ask it to explain the destination clearance arrangement and the documents you will receive. A reply saying “our shipping partner handles everything” needs a follow-up: which company handles the import work, and what information must your business supply?

The seller may need your assistance with required information or documents. Do not interpret DDP as permission to ignore requests from the legitimate clearance provider. Equally, do not hand over company authorization merely because an unidentified person asks for it in a shipping chat.

If a quote says “DDP, taxes excluded,” request a written explanation of the proposed variation before signing. You need a contract that states who pays which amounts. Adding a familiar three-letter label to contradictory exclusions leaves the chair order difficult to budget and administer.

Can the seller actually carry out its DDP promise?

Ask this before choosing the apparently simpler option. The ICC discussion of national regulatory barriers explains that local requirements can restrict how parties carry out import formalities. A seller’s ability to book international transport does not by itself establish a lawful destination import arrangement.

For your destination, ask the proposed broker to explain who can act as importer, whose registrations or authorizations are needed, and which records your business should retain. These answers depend on the country and transaction. A phrase such as “tax included” cannot determine whether your business can recover a tax or use a particular customs document.

Request sample document formats with commercial details removed if you need to understand the process. Then let your own broker or tax adviser check whether the arrangement meets your requirements. Do this while comparing offers, when changing the transport plan is still practical.

If the seller cannot explain a workable DDP arrangement, consider DAP with an identified broker you can instruct. ICC Academy also discusses the practical complications of DDP. Choose after comparing the complete scope and the work your team can manage; DDP is not automatically the cheapest choice, and DAP is not automatically unsuitable for a new importer.

A forwarder’s DDP service is not your factory contract

Your factory might sell the chairs on one basis while a separate forwarder advertises a “DDP line.” Identify who has promised what to you. The party selling the goods and the party supplying transport may be different businesses with separate contracts.

For example, if you independently hire a forwarder after agreeing the factory sale, that transport booking does not silently rewrite the factory’s delivery obligations. Ask both providers where the factory hands over the goods, who arranges each movement and which contract contains the destination service.

Keep the purchase order and the transport quotation together. If the forwarder excludes a fee that the seller had agreed to bear, refer the discrepancy to the seller before collection. Ask who will pay it so the gap does not survive into the booking.

The same separation helps with problems. For a missing chair, record the ordered quantity, packing record and receiving count. For a late truck, record the transport booking and appointment. Incoterms do not replace the wider sale contract or settle every payment, quality or delay issue; ICC explains those limits in its introduction to the rules.

Who gets the chairs off the truck?

In the standard DAP and DDP rules, delivery occurs on the arriving means of transport, ready for unloading at the agreed destination point. Do not assume the seller must carry the chairs into your stockroom. Specify the unloading service you need and have any extra arrangement written into the agreed scope.

Our hypothetical warehouse needs a suitable tail lift or another agreed unloading method. Tell the provider the pallet dimensions and weight, whether a forklift is available, and whether the receiving surface and entrance suit the proposed equipment. Ask who supplies that equipment and who performs the unloading.

Now picture a different arrival: the truck is too large for the access road, or it reaches a locked gate after receiving hours. Ask how the provider handles failed appointments, waiting and redelivery, including how any additional charge is approved. Identify the cause and contractual allocation before accepting a bill; these costs are not automatically the buyer’s responsibility in every situation.

Agree what your receiving team will record: pallet or package count, visible damage, arrival time and any exception on the delivery record. Compare that count with the packing list. For a mixed order, our shipping-marks and packing-list guide explains how package references help trace the contents.

Also ask whether cargo insurance is arranged, what it covers and how to report damage. DDP itself does not require the seller to buy cargo insurance for the buyer. The agreed risk allocation and an insurance policy answer different questions.

A current freight headline cannot price your delivery

Freightos’s October 20, 2026 update, published on October 21, reported a 6% weekly increase in its Asia-Northern Europe ocean index and a 19% increase in China-North America air rates. Those are observations for different markets and transport modes. They are not a quotation for your chairs. Freightos weekly update.

The useful buying question is how long your own offer remains valid. Ask whether its validity is tied to booking, collection or departure, and what happens if the factory misses the relevant date. If the provider revises the total, request the changed assumptions and charges before approving it.

For the 120 chairs, obtain the final packed volume and gross weight, not only the dimensions of one assembled chair. Nesting, pallet height and protective packing affect the shipment the provider will quote. Our freight measurement guide explains why estimated packing data can produce a revised charge.

Ask for a collection plan that follows inspection and final packing, with enough time for the booked departure. A low quote that expires before the chairs can be collected is not an executable option. Compare a refreshed offer with the alternatives using the same cargo and destination details.

Send one request that gets a usable answer

You can adapt the message below for the chair order. Replace the brackets with actual information and mark anything still unknown. The provider can then identify the missing input instead of guessing.

We are purchasing 120 stackable metal garden chairs for delivery to [full warehouse address, postcode and receiving point]. Our receiving hours are [hours]. We have [equipment] and the access restrictions are [details]. Final packing data are [pallets/packages, dimensions and gross weight], with collection expected on [date].

Please state whether the sale is DDP or DAP to this point under Incoterms® 2020. Identify who arranges import clearance, pays applicable duties and taxes, and provides the import records. Explain the information or authorizations our business must supply.

Please confirm unloading equipment and service, appointments and any exclusions. State the quote validity, the milestone it applies to, and how changed cargo data, delayed collection or a failed delivery would be handled. List amounts still payable by us separately.

When the reply arrives, resolve each blank before signing: an unnamed clearance provider needs identification; an unsupported tax promise needs destination review; an unspecified unloading service needs a receiving plan. If you would like Surmount to coordinate sourcing and the shipping discussion, send the product, quantity, destination and current supplier quote. Include the unknowns so the proposed service can address them.