Customs brokerage for a global group providing a wide range of integrated shipping, logistics and marine services.

Nature of Client’s Business

Air freight and ocean freight services to the global marine and oil and gas industries

Volume of Client’s Activity

Ocean freight around 3,000 customs declarations per annum
Air freight around 10,000 customs declarations per annum

Client’s Work Processes Before Engaging TNETS As Customs Declaring Agent / Customs Broker

  • Customs declarations performed by client’s operations staff who are required to multitask.
  • Operations staff were required to make freight bookings, arrange local transport, organise billing, and then also find time to make customs declarations.
  • This sometimes led to delays in customs declaration and occasional declaration errors, resulting in penalties from customs, as inexperienced staff were occasionally required to perform customs declarations.
  • The client was very concerned about their team’s ability to meet the advance export declaration (AED) compliance requirement of their clients, and therefore approached TNETS for an outsourced customs declaration solution.
  • Following a competitive tender the client decided to outsource all customs declaration activity to TNETS.

Client’s Work Processes After Engaging TNETS As Customs Declaring Agent / Customs Broker

  • Following a number of implementation meetings during which TNETS and the client worked out and agreed standard operating processes (SOPs) and key performance indicators (KPIs), operations began.
  • Client now has full visibility of status of all customs declarations and approved cargo clearance permits. Goods are cleared within customer KPIs for such activities, and customer’s staff are free to focus on core logistics management activities.
  • Client is now able to demonstrate industry best practice and best in class performance to clients in the areas of customs declarations and related administration
  • Due to the nature and urgency of the client’s business, and particularly with regards to the sensitivity of the products the client transports, the target KPI is always 100%. During the first couple of months TNETS was already achieving about 95-97%, and since then KPI achievement has been consistently 99.5% and above.

Direct Operational Benefits To Client

  • Client’s compliance with AED’s maintained at greater than 99.5% meaning zero penalties for the client, or for their clients.
  • Client’s staff are now able to focus on their core activities and attend to their clients more effectively.
  • Client now has visibility on status of individual customs declarations showing which shipments been declared to customs, which are pending with customs, and which are approved and cargo clearance permits issued, and which are rejected (with reasons), thereby greatly improving the client’s ability to plan cargo and assign cargoes to consolidation.
  • Client now has instant accessibility to retrieve copies of customs permits through a dedicated customer interface allowing them to answer queries both from internal and external parties.
  • Client also has the option to print hard-copies of customs permits, as well as having a full archive of them.

Generic Benefits Of Using TNETS’ Outsourced Customs Declaration Service:

  • Timeliness
  • Data integrity
  • Declaration accuracy
  • Freight operations process efficiency
  • Staff productivity
  • Freight processes remapped
  • End client satisfaction.

Financial Benefits Of Using TNETS’ Outsourced Customs Declaration Service:

  • Reduced operations costs
  • Reduced customs penalties
  • Zero costs associated with recruiting replacement declaration staff
  • No specialist training on permit declaration required for declaration staff
  • Reduced costs of customer retention