Indians love to send souvenirs and locally popular items to their home country from where they went to work as an expatriate. ‘Persia’, the word was popularly used to denote Gulf Countries, was one of the initial destinations Indians migrated largely. Loved ones back home expect their return after the hard-fought years earning respect & wealth. Gathering what the family back home loves the most from the local market and gifting them whilst the return had become a custom.

When time passes, a new era of cargo system evolved where people can send their items by air or by sea till their nearest port and they could collect it by showing their passport and other necessary documents. Door to door cargo service had started as a modification on this kind of service where a middleman would do the clearance work also and the shipment would be delivered to his doorstep as hassle free. This has made the long wait shorter for the loved ones to receive the lovely souvenirs.

This mode got tremendous popularity among expatriates as they are free from all the risky elements in transportation and clearance procedures. Sending household items from Dubai, or UAE or collectively gulf countries, became so popular and within less than 20 years, it became a huge market, and finds its separate and indisputable position under logistics industry.

The movement of used household items, all the items need not have to be ‘used’ or ‘household’, officially denoted with the term personal effects, constitute only 3 % of the total cargo movement in the world whereas the remaining 97% constitute commercial cargo movement which may be by air , sea, land or by any other mode possible. Countries follow various guidelines & laws for smoother transactions and it may be hard to believe that used household items are labelled with separate HS Codes (Harmonized Synchronization Code, used in all the countries to identify a particular commodity), just as any other products like iron or garment.

Indians are proudly the largest expatriate community in UAE, hence the cargo volume from UAE to India is substantially high. A lot of established cargo companies in this industry like ABC Cargo, EC Cargo, Seabreaze Cargo etc, play their’ roles in serving this community. Personal effects cargo happens from UAE to various countries including UK, USA, France, Australia, Canada etc. But the cargo volume to all these countries together will not constitute half of the volume going to India. Hence the market demand is higher throughout the year.

Cargo service companies in Dubai, Sharjah or other emirates are very popular and competing each other to secure their position in the market as the industry itself is vulnerable to clearance issues in the destination countries, seasonal fluctuations in the market etc. However, Personal Effect Cargo Services is really helpful to the expatriates as a huge population among them are using this service to show their love and care to their loved once in their home as they cannot travel back to home as frequently as they wish.