Time to read: 3 min
Countries around the world continue to open their own economies slowly. At the same time, many are implementing restrictions for travelers from areas with high rates of COVID-19 infection. Air travel restrictions and congestion continue to affect freight transit times.
In our July 9 update, transit times from China to the U.S. were averaging 6 days, which continues to be the case. We’re in close communication with our carriers to continue to find solutions to expedite our shipments and get your orders to your doorstep as soon as possible. Despite challenges in the global supply chain, carriers are optimistic that overall transit times will be significantly improved by August.
Latest Updates
Reduced commercial airline flights and the high cost of moving freight, rather than passengers, continue to impact international transit times. We hope to see this issue resolved and that passenger airlines will continue to support freight shipments.
Our boots on the ground in China say ports of export are still experiencing significant congestion, but we’re partnering with carriers to divert orders to alternative, less congested ports of export. In addition, recent tensions between the U.S. and China could pose a risk to the number of commercial flights to Hong Kong between the U.S. and China.
Freight carriers are slowly enabling services that were suspended. However, capacity constraints in the global supply chain mean some of the most price-competitive services, including International Economy Service and International Freight Economy Service, are still temporarily suspended. See the “See Service Impact Information” link on FedEx’s coronavirus page for complete details.
Guidance for Fictiv Customers
Some carriers may advertise average transit delays of 1 day over the Service Level Agreement (SLA), but Fictiv continues to monitor OTD rates, and in July, the vast majority of our shipments arrived to our customers in 6 days. If you place an overseas order, please factor the 6-day average transit time into your schedule. You may also consider producing locally, which may provide faster production lead times with more reliable carrier shipping lead times.
We’ve seen a number of cases where carriers attempt to deliver cargo to a home or company address, but the recipient is not present to receive the shipment, or the company is temporarily closed due to a shelter in place directive in the U.S. We encourage you to use your tracking number to follow the transit of your shipment on the carrier website or directly on Fictiv’s portal. If you won’t be present at the time of delivery, or your company is temporarily closed, we recommend contacting the carrier to make special pickup arrangements.
If you experience a Customs hold, let our team resolve it for you. Please email our Fictiv customer support team at help@fictiv.com or forward us any email that you might have received from the carrier. We will troubleshoot the situation and contact you if we need additional forms or information.
Main Takeaways
We look forward to helping you get your shipments as quickly as possible. We’ll keep you updated on transit time improvements and other international logistics issues over the next few weeks.
