RATE SCOPE
What a written rate covers, and what it leaves out
On this page
Two buyers can hold the same rate and still be surprised by the final invoice, because a road rate from Xinjiang to Iran is not one all-in figure. It performs three things. Everything else at the destination belongs to the buyer, and the cheapest confusion in this business is the one that gets cleared before the truck leaves rather than after it arrives.
- Inside the rate: the haul, China-side warehousing/loading/export declaration, transit brokerage abroad
- Outside it: Iranian clearance, inspection, insurance, securing, lifting, extensions, over-limit cargo
- Delivery is CPT or DAP at the destination customs — not door-to-door, not DDP
- The Kyrgyz 0.4% is a tax on the Wuqia lane only; it is never freight
Two lists, kept apart
A written offer is drawn so that the two lists never merge into a single sentence. The first list is what we perform and price: the line haul to the destination customs, the China-side warehouse and loading and export declaration, and the transit brokerage that carries the cargo through Central Asia. The second list is what happens outside that boundary, and every item on it has an owner who is not the carrier.
Buyers sometimes read the second list as upselling. It is not. It is the edge of what a truck rate can cover: clearance in Iran cannot be priced by the haulier, insurance is the cargo owner's decision, and lashing or crane work depends on a loading plan that nobody has seen when the quotation is written.
Offers carry a reference in the form RFQ-date-number and a validity date. The validity window is what binds us. A figure sent in a chat message is a courtesy, not an offer, and this site publishes no rate table at all.
The three lines inside the rate
The haul is the first: one truck, loaded in Xinjiang, delivered to the destination customs — Mashhad Customs or Tehran West Customs (Shahriyar / Aprin). Up to 80 CBM and 22 tonnes fit one trailer, and anything past that limit is reviewed separately. That is why an over-limit line never hides inside the base rate.
The China side is the second: warehousing, loading, and the export declaration that puts the cargo on a legal outbound path. This work happens before the border and it is priced in from the start, not invoiced as an extra the week the truck is loaded.
Transit brokerage abroad is the third: the paperwork that moves the cargo across Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan on the Wuqia lane, or across Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan on the Khorgos lane. This line is easy to leave out of a quotation and expensive to discover at the first transit desk, so it belongs in writing.
The nine items outside it
Clearance in Iran comes first, and it sits with the buyer and the buyer's broker. The rate delivers to the customs point; it does not clear the goods, and it does not pay the duty. Inspection charges raised at the destination follow the same logic.
Cargo insurance is the owner's decision, so the rate carries no cover. Securing and lifting are not assumed either: a load that needs lashing or crane work is priced against its own loading plan, because neither can be guessed from a weight figure.
Extensions inside Iran — inspection-free release, national registration certificates, radiation readings above the limit — are quoted per shipment and never bundled. Legal inspection paperwork for goods that require it is checked shipment by shipment, and no figure is published for it. The part of a load beyond 80 CBM or 22 tonnes is reviewed on its own. Door-to-door and DDP are not offered on this lane at all, so they cannot appear as a line item: delivery stops at CPT or DAP, at the customs.
One more sits outside the freight column: the Kyrgyz 0.4%, which the next section handles on its own because buyers routinely mistake it for a rate.
0.4%: a tax, not freight
The Kyrgyz 0.4% exists on the Wuqia lane because that lane crosses Kyrgyzstan. The Khorgos lane does not carry it. It is a tax rather than a freight charge, the rate does not include it, and the buyer pays it separately.
Its base is the cargo invoice value, and the arrangement in force at shipment time still has to be confirmed. So this page does not fix a percentage for your shipment; it only fixes which side of the invoice the line belongs to. Anyone who quotes it as "part of the truck rate" is describing a different arrangement from ours.
FAQ
Is the rate all-in to Tehran?
No. It covers delivery to the destination customs, CPT or DAP. Clearance, its costs, insurance and any work after the customs point are outside it.
Why is lashing not included?
Because it depends on the load. Securing and lifting are not assumed by the rate, and a load that needs them is priced against its own loading plan.
Does the 0.4% apply on the Khorgos lane too?
No. It is tied to the Kyrgyz transit on the Wuqia lane; the Khorgos lane does not carry it.
Related: Three fields before a quote · Where the clock starts · Packing for a curtainsider · Get a Freight Quote