February Newsletter

Welcome

With SAD Harmonisation now fully live, we're delighted to report we're up-and-running too and experiencing no problems or issues with the new operational environment. Some in our industry were pessimistic about SAD-H, resisting change and predicting chaos. Adaptable and positive, we embraced the SAD-H requirements and committed ourselves to being prepared and ready for the changeover. Over the last year or so, we've attended several courses and meetings with HMRC and our software providers, to ensure we were fully conversant with all the requirements and changes. Our customers can have every confidence in our SAD-H procedures and in our understanding of the new rules. We can guide and advise you through the changes.

This month, our leader article focuses on the needs of e-commerce businesses. This is an area of our business which has seen significant growth over the last year and we've established some very effective procedures which cater for every shipping and importation scenario.

So enjoy the issue and don't forget, for any customs and importation queries, make our friendly and approachable Customer Services team on +44 (0)20 8231 0900 your first port of call.

In this issue

E-Commerce: We take the Heat out of Shipping and Customs
Gaming Champion Retires Unbeaten!
Q&A - Everything you wanted to know about importing, but were afraid to ask!
Our coffee break story: Tight Deadlines and Faraway Places

E-Commerce: We take the Heat out of Shipping and Customs

E-Commerce is a massive growth industry today, and it's easy to see why: Consumers are shopping by internet in ever increasing numbers; the costs associated with running an on-line business are so manageable when compared to high-street trading; and when you sell on-line, your market isn't just the people who live in your area, it's the entire world.

Gaining access to the global market is one thing. To be successful when competition is intense, you need to be able to access products from across the globe, and then deliver those products to your customers in the shortest possible time. That's when it becomes vital to have in place the fastest, most efficient shipping, customs clearance and delivery mechanisms.

Customs Clearance Ltd already works with a number of e-commerce businesses and we already have a tried-and-tested 'blueprint for success'. We've put in place a suite of processes that help our customers gain competitive edge and provide a service to their customers that keeps them coming back for more.

Let's imagine you're an e-commerce supplier of goods which you source from around the world and supply to customers across the UK and Europe via your web site. Every night, you collate your orders for the day and transmit them to your overseas supplier. Your supplier then produces a single shipment for that day, and instructs Customs Clearance Ltd to collect and freight the shipment to the UK (it doesn't matter where this comes from).

The shipment arrives by air in London where, having received the necessary documentation from the supplier, we clear it through customs, and, in our warehouse, break down the shipment to your individual customer orders and despatch these across Europe by parcel post options or courier services, to each of your customers.

Thus Customs Clearance Ltd acts as your 'hub' for the UK and Europe, handling the shipping, customs clearance, break-bulk and onward forwarding for you from end-to-end - and you never even need to see the goods you're selling.

We can handle this process for you either DDP (Duty Delivered Paid) or DDU (Duty Delivered Unpaid). In the case of DDU, our on-line secure payment system ensures that your customers can pay the required duty quickly and easily, via their PC.

You may be used to your orders being dispatched by mail, and not coming through Customs. HM Revenue & Customs is becoming ever stricter with the regulations and requires duty to be paid on any order over £18 in value. This means your goods will need to be handled via parcel or courier service, rather than as mail, and be cleared through customs. Our job is to simplify and streamline that process for you, whether you incorporate the duty into your original price to the customer, or require them to pay their duty directly.

Customs Clearance Ltd exists to make the process of freighting and clearing customs a pain-free and straightforward experience, particularly if, as an e-commerce business, you are a regular importer. Without experienced, professional support, you could be losing valuable hours and days in handling customs processes, and - even more importantly - losing hard-won customers to other e-commerce businesses who can deliver faster than you. Don't let it happen!

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Gaming Champion Retires Unbeaten!

We hear our on-line game continues to amuse and entertain. In fact, we've received reports that the current Champion, a certain Mark Grundy of international courier firm Bluebird Express, has been forced to retire as his in-tray groans under the weight of action items! He's held his commanding position on the Leader Board for several weeks, but now there's a chance for a challenger to make some headway. Are you up to it? Click here to test your delivery skills and knowledge of geography, and maybe knock Mark off his podium.

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Q&A - Everything you wanted to know about importing, but were afraid to ask!

Each issue, we answer in brief one or two of your more specific customs and importation questions.

Q: We know there is a CE certificate for the type of electrical product we want to import, but some of the suppliers overseas don't have their products certificated yet, although they are good products. If we import such items, are we likely to have any problem with Customs?

A: Yes. Without a CE approval certificate, you are likely to have a problem with HM Revenue & Customs. They may want to know why there is no CE certificate and require proof that the products are legally manufactured (ie, not counterfeit).

As a customs broker, it is our legal requirement to report such activity and we would therefore strongly recommend that you obtain appropriate certification before attempting to import.

We would also recommend you to contact the Chamber of Commerce or British Trading Standards for further information on the regulatory position.

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Coffee Break Story: Tight Deadlines and Faraway Places

We continue our series of 'coffee break' stories for you. Enjoy!

As we speak, my team is top of the league table. Go On You Reds! We have a few players away on international duty and that's going to cause us a bit of a defensive problem for the next 3 weeks or so, but I'm confident the rest of the team will perform well and give it their all, under the circumstances.

Well, that was still playing on my mind when I got the phone call. (How spooky was that?!)

These guys spend a lot of money with us and my boss promised them the earth. Why did she do that when she didn't actually know if it could be done or not? Well, I suppose that's why she's the queen and I'm the worker bee… She talks a good game and it's my job to make it happen.

The thing is, the Africa Cup of Nations is taking place in Ghana and my company supplies a big-league corporation who happens to be one of the major tournament sponsors. We had the products they wanted, just not enough stock in the warehouse to meet their massive demand for this one event.

It was - quite literally - a tall order, and I had to fix it. I needed to find a way to place the order, arrange the pick up, shipping and customs clearance into the UK, check and process the order, arrange for the stock to be shipped to me in London, make some slight modifications, then ship the whole consignment to Accra, speed it through customs over there and get it delivered to the customer, and all before the end of the week.

For years we've been using the same shipping agent - and they were okay. Based locally, the staff were friendly enough and they usually got things done for us. So I called Matt who I knew quite well since joining the company 2 years ago. He knows his stuff; he's on the ball and always upbeat and helpful; he'd surely go out of his way to get us what we needed. I had high hopes.

Back to the Africa Cup of Nations. The first game was due to start on January 20th and the tournament ran until February 10th. Our customer only had enough supplies for the first week so we had to move fast. Then we hit the first hurdle. Matt's cut off time was 16:00hrs but the products wouldn't be ready by then because they were still in the air on their way from the manufacturer overseas. I'd heard too, that it was a nightmare to get anything cleared through customs in Ghana, so by now I was quite nervous about the whole thing - time really was too tight.

Despite our track record, Matt's company weren't prepared to give me any assurances or anything even close to a guarantee - and my high hopes began to fade away. He kept skirting around the issue, and I got even more nervous. So I made a few phone calls and sent a few emails - to try and find somebody prepared to take on the problem; somebody, anybody, please take this off my hands! Take care of the situation, give me peace of mind and let me concentrate on building and processing the order! One name kept popping up - CCL, that's Customs Clearance Ltd - it seems quite a few of my contacts thought well of them. I checked out their website at www.customsclearanceuk.com, easily found the contact details, then took a deep breath, said a small prayer and placed the call. Before I knew it, I had their top sales guy on the phone. He ran through a routine fact-finding exercise then handed me over to his very capable operations team, with assurances that they would take care of everything, from start to finish.

And that's just what they did. It wasn't simple - if it had been, anybody could have done it. Air freighting in from the Far East, doing a quickkie turnaround and getting crates of product through customs in Accra in record time? What do you think?! But they stuck with it managed the process, kept on top of their local agent and it all came out right.

My customer, out at the tournament, was pleased, and I was ecstatic, not to say very relieved. Thanks to their good relationships, CCL's local agent handled the freight movement smoothly and proficiently and the shipment arrived and cleared in good time. The sponsor - my customer - came out well and their branded goodies ended up in the right hands, and nobody ran out of supplies! They were happy, my boss was happy, and I got to sleep nights again.

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