Whether you’re importing or exporting, your customs brokerage is going to be a key factor in the success of your operations. While you could have someone in house to manage your customs brokerage, this is time, money and resource intensive and does not provide a particularly good return on investment. It also means that more people within your organisation will need to be involved with the process as there are other aspects that will be impacted by everything going on down at the dock, and that creates larger margins for error and generates more stress. For these reasons, and those listed below, we strongly suggest outsourcing your customs brokerage:
Improved Efficiency
When you outsource your customs brokerage, the person handling everything quite literally does this day in and day out. While that probably doesn’t matter too much to you, it should, because it means that your business will benefit from greatly improved efficiency. This helps to shorten lead times which can boost productivity in all other areas of your business while also improving customer satisfaction as they’ll get their orders within a shorter timeframe than they would have if your customs brokerage wasn’t as effective.
Better Pricing
You’ll also benefit from better pricing when you outsource your customs brokerage as whomever handles things for you will most likely have preferential deals with suppliers as they handle so many orders. This means that storage should work out cheaper, as should transport and pretty much anything else that you have to pay for along the way that isn’t a fixed fee. You may even find that everything is rolled into a single invoice, including transport from the docks to your warehouse, so you’ll be able to save even more.
Avoid Paperwork
It’s fair to say that most people consider paperwork to be the least fun part of their job. It is, however, a necessary evil. The good news is that if you’re not handling your own customs brokerage, you’re also not required to deal with the vast majority of the associated paperwork. All you have to do is worry about the other parts of your business and sign off on the odd form that whoever manages your customs brokerage for you sends through.
Reduce Room For Error
By working with someone who has a license in customs brokerage you also greatly reduce the room for error throughout the entire process. Making mistakes is human, but when you’re dealing with getting things in and out of the country, the consequences of messing up can be quite severe. In this way, outsourcing protects you twofold as not only will you experience less issues, but you’ll also have lower personal liability in the event that anything does happen to go wrong.
Less Stress
Finally, outsourcing your customs brokerage means less stress all around. Not only will you not have to be constantly focused on managing the process, but you’ll also be able to perform better elsewhere since you’re not dealing with trying to have goods released. This in turn further reduces stress as you’re obviously going to be happier when things are running smoothly. Other staff in the business who would have previously had a role to play in getting your products in and out of the country will also enjoy the same benefits, meaning everyone, including your bottom line, wins.
Dealing with ports, stressing about paperwork and packaging and constantly worrying about whether you’ll actually receive clearance is bad for both you and your business. There are plenty of other areas where your time and effort can be invested to provide much better returns with far less stress, so outsourcing your customs brokerage simply makes sense.