Services · Transport
We arrange the truck. We don't own it, and that's on purpose.
Shafiq Traders · Updated 13 September 2026
We don't own trucks. When a container of yours needs to move from Karachi Port, Port Qasim or the Mughalpura dry port to your gate, we book a transporter for that specific move, arrange the delivery order and any escort or permit the load needs, and stay on it until the container is at your address and the empty is back with the shipping line. Not owning a fleet means we are choosing a transporter for your cargo, not filling our own trucks with it.
A container that still has to move
Clearance gets a container out of the port. It doesn't get it to your factory. Somebody still has to drive it there, and that somebody is a transporter we book for the move, not a truck sitting in our own yard.
We don't own trucks. We never have. When you ask us to arrange transport, we call a haulier, agree a rate for that specific container on that specific route, and hand over the delivery order once it clears. The truck belongs to them, not to us.
Who is paid for what, once your container is released
| Party | What they are paid for | Who arranges it |
|---|---|---|
| The transporter | Moving the container from the port to your gate | Shafiq Traders books it for your consignment |
| The shipping line | The container itself, until the empty is returned | You, through the delivery order we take on your behalf |
| The port authority or terminal | Port rent and terminal handling, up to the point of release | Settled by us before the truck is allowed to gate out |
| An insurer, where one is used | Cover for the cargo while it's on the road | You, or through the transporter's own policy |
What happens once your container is released
The clearance is ours from the first document to the last. The truck itself belongs to someone we booked.
Booking the move
Once the gate pass is close, we book a transporter matched to the container size, the route and anything the cargo itself needs — a flatbed for machinery, a covered trailer for something that can't get wet.
The delivery order
We take the delivery order from the shipping line in your name, so the transporter has the paperwork the gate will actually ask for.
Gating out
The container leaves the terminal on the transporter's truck, under the delivery order and gate pass we've arranged.
On the road
For anything oversized or otherwise regulated, the transporter carries the route permit and any escort the load requires.
Delivery
The container reaches your address, and we confirm delivery against the paperwork the transporter returns to us.
The empty
The container is returned to the shipping line once it's unloaded. Every day it sits at your premises after that runs against the line's own detention clock, not ours.
Why we don't own trucks
A firm with its own fleet has an incentive that has nothing to do with your container: keeping its trucks moving. That can mean your cargo waits for the next available truck rather than the best one for the job, or gets bundled onto a route that suits the fleet's schedule rather than yours.
We don't have that problem, because we don't have a fleet to keep busy. We book from transporters who specialise in what your consignment actually needs — a low-loader for a generator, a temperature-controlled trailer for something perishable — rather than whatever happens to be parked at our own yard that day.
We do not own a single truck, and we are not going to pretend that's a detail. It means the price of a move tracks the market for that route on that day — fuel, availability, the week before a holiday when every transporter in Karachi is booked solid — rather than a flat number we control. It also means we are not trying to fill anybody's fleet with your cargo. If a specialist transporter is the right choice for your load, that's who we book, and there's no owned truck sitting idle that we're tempted to use instead.
Special cargo needs a different truck
A generator, a coil of steel, a machine that doesn't fit inside a standard container's dimensions — none of that moves on the same truck as a pallet of finished garments. We match the transporter to the cargo: low-loaders and route permits for oversized machinery, covered trailers for anything that dyes, chemicals or paper can't afford to get wet, temperature control for anything that can't sit in a Karachi summer.
Getting this wrong costs more than a delay. A load that needed a permit and didn't have one gets stopped on the road, not at the port, and that is a harder problem to fix once the container has already left the terminal.
Questions
What clients ask about transport
Contact
Tell us what is coming.
Give us the product, the port and roughly when the vessel is due, and we will tell you what the clearance involves and what it will cost.
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