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I'd invite all of you asset carriers to join me in submitting this to your clients, be they shippers, receivers or 3PLs. The only way that we will be able to drive meaningful reductions in customs brokerage delays will be by making them cost prohibitive.
To: All Clients
Re: Customs Brokers Delays and Communication
As many of you know, for the last two decades there has been a significant challenge for carriers to have customs clearances processed in a timely manner. Customs clearances have long posed a challenge, given that the carrier is not a party to the transaction between the customs broker and the importer or exporter of record, and yet the carrier is left being responsible for the submission of the shipper’s documentation to the broker and bears the total cost of any of the processing delays or challenges.
Sadly, the work from home structure that most brokerages adopted in light of the COVID -19 pandemic means that industrywide service levels have gone from almost tolerable to completely unbearable, adding a significant amount of delay time and administrative burden on carriers to follow up with customs brokers to ensure that they are actually processing the clearances as required in a timely fashion. As carriers, we cannot continue to bear this cost burden alone, particularly when coupled with other rising costs that need to be mitigated as well. As such, we have no choice but to implement the following fee structure for any brokerage processing or entry submission delays, as well as for breakdowns in proactive communication.
Free Followup to confirm receipt
One free followup to check on status of entry if not processed within allowable timelines.
Any additional followups by our administrative staff will be charged back at a rate of 50.00 for the first monitoring followup, then doubling for each time our staff needs to manage your process. That means second billable followup is assessed at 100.00, third at 200, fourth at 400 etc
It is regrettable that customs brokerages have allowed service levels to lapse to the point where a fee schedule like this is necessary, however, given the limits in drivers available hours of service and the cost prohibitive nature of preventable delays, we have no choice but to implement this fee schedule in order to ensure transit timelines are met. As a client, you can chose whether you’d like to have these charges billed to your account with us, or whether you’d like us to bill them directly to the customs broker responsible for incurring them.
Please feel free to reach out if you have any further questions. We appreciate your understanding of these challenges and your commitment to partnering with us to reduce them.
To: All Clients
Re: Customs Brokers Delays and Communication
As many of you know, for the last two decades there has been a significant challenge for carriers to have customs clearances processed in a timely manner. Customs clearances have long posed a challenge, given that the carrier is not a party to the transaction between the customs broker and the importer or exporter of record, and yet the carrier is left being responsible for the submission of the shipper’s documentation to the broker and bears the total cost of any of the processing delays or challenges.
Sadly, the work from home structure that most brokerages adopted in light of the COVID -19 pandemic means that industrywide service levels have gone from almost tolerable to completely unbearable, adding a significant amount of delay time and administrative burden on carriers to follow up with customs brokers to ensure that they are actually processing the clearances as required in a timely fashion. As carriers, we cannot continue to bear this cost burden alone, particularly when coupled with other rising costs that need to be mitigated as well. As such, we have no choice but to implement the following fee structure for any brokerage processing or entry submission delays, as well as for breakdowns in proactive communication.
- Loads picking up within 250 miles of the border are due to be processed and submitted within 2 hours of receipt of pars paperwork.
- Loads picking up outside of 250 miles of the port of entry are permitted 4 hours for processing and submission to customs.
- Waiting time – for all times when a driver, truck, and trailer are forced to wait for a clearance past the allowable timelines listed in 1, 2 above – to be billed at a rate of 2.00 per minute, or 120.00 per hour.
- We provide 2 free customs clearance monitorings per shipment:
Free Followup to confirm receipt
One free followup to check on status of entry if not processed within allowable timelines.
Any additional followups by our administrative staff will be charged back at a rate of 50.00 for the first monitoring followup, then doubling for each time our staff needs to manage your process. That means second billable followup is assessed at 100.00, third at 200, fourth at 400 etc
- In situations where the customs broker is missing information to process the entry or is not the importer of record as provided by client and customs broker fails to notify the carrier proactively of the issue within 30 minutes of discovering the issue a charge of 150.00 per incident shall apply.
It is regrettable that customs brokerages have allowed service levels to lapse to the point where a fee schedule like this is necessary, however, given the limits in drivers available hours of service and the cost prohibitive nature of preventable delays, we have no choice but to implement this fee schedule in order to ensure transit timelines are met. As a client, you can chose whether you’d like to have these charges billed to your account with us, or whether you’d like us to bill them directly to the customs broker responsible for incurring them.
Please feel free to reach out if you have any further questions. We appreciate your understanding of these challenges and your commitment to partnering with us to reduce them.
