With the incorrect completion of customs tasks resulting in delays in cargo delivery out of free time at the port and the results rippling back affecting the people on the ground, find out how Azarc’s automated custom’s clearance solution saves £50 per transaction and 2 hours per shipment … and the Cue The BBQ team from anxiety, anger, over-communicating the when, where, ‘what, how’ discussions, and overall frustration at the management and delivery of the cargo.

The Client

Cue the BBQ is a charcoal and firewood manufacturer based in Durban, South Africa. Run by Jody Cleworth, Cue the BBQ ships 8-12 containers a week to London Gateway, United Kingdom. Cue the BBQ supplies its customers on a DAP or DDP incoterm basis. As such, this makes Cue the BBQ responsible for the delivery schedule, customs clearance, regulatory documentation, and any VAT or Duty payments at the UK border.

The Problem

In a nutshell, Cue the BBQ consistently experiences last-minute delays in preparing paperwork. Transit times can take up to 30 days or more, so there is ample time for Cue the BBQ to ensure that documentation is always to the correct requirements to clear and deliver containers in the UK. Though, as most in the logistics industry know, this is hardly the case.

With vessels departing from South Africa to arrive at London Gateway over the weekend, Friday evenings have become challenging – namely, meeting the demands of clearing agents and the subsequent delivery schedules for container deliveries to the final destination warehouse in the UK. While Cue the BBQ has up to 30 days to plan and prepare documents, there are always clarifications required at the last minute on the shipment’s arrival.

After running the supply chain as close to perfect as possible, from plantation to final product loaded into a container, in South Africa, efforts were being thwarted by escalating charges in the UK. For an SME that’s quite a sour pill to swallow. Particularly when all the data and documents have been prepared before departure from South Africa, almost 30 days beforehand.   

Jody said: “We can sometimes lose up to 3 days of free time for containers on the quay at London Gateway, when containers discharge early on a Saturday morning, deliveries then slip to a Tuesday and when a certain warehouse can only accept only one container a day, we end up delivering containers outside of free time, this final route of the journey can then become an expensive exercise.”

When it comes to the people on the ground, the incorrect completion of customs tasks at this point will result in delays in cargo delivery out of free time at the port – the results of which ripple back through the third parties that operate on the stakeholder’s behalf as far as the warehouse and its HR staff. 

At the warehouse, the less time there is to plan, the higher the demand on the HR staff with people having to work overtime or being taken away from their ‘usual’ duties to deal with the exception of delayed container deliveries. Every part of that ‘final mile’ delivery, from a human point of view for Cue The BBQ, resulted in anxiety, anger, over-communicating the when, where, ‘what, how’ discussions, and overall frustration at the management and delivery of the cargo.

The Benefits Now

Demurrage and detention no longer eat into Cue the BBQ’s bottom line – and, when shipping commodities like wood and charcoal, every cent counts. By leveraging Azarc’s automated platform solution, Rune, our client’s gross profit margins have successfully increased. This enables staff to shift their focus towards revenue generation and enjoy a stress-free Friday evening after a challenging week of navigating the complexities of the export market. 

Rune saves Cue the BBQ approximately: 

• £50 per transaction
• 2 hours per shipment

The Solution

Cue the BBQ completes all of its shipping, supply chain processes, and data generation prior to export in South Africa. Having to wait the entire transit time of the voyage from Durban to London Gateway, to find out if there are missing documents or data, is an unnecessary and cumbersome extension of the existing business process. With all the company and supply chain data under Cue the BBQ’s control at the point of export, combining their export data sets and commercial invoices to gain pre-validation using Rune made sense. 

This shift of process allows Jody and his team to deliver containers in the UK from the next day or next business day, after the vessel arrives, rather than waiting until later in the week, the longer the wait in clearing the shipment,  the higher the risk in running the gauntlet on possible demurrage and detention charges. 

Rune not only creates an internal operational benefit for Cue the BBQ, but it also assures compliance and viability of the customs clearance process. There are no shortcuts in the clearance activities in the United Kingdom and that assurance is key to the longevity of trading with its UK customers. 

While Rune mitigates the process of customs clearance, it also gives confidence to Cue the BBQ to load more containers to a specific client on a single vessel, extending the efficiency of Cue the BBQ’s supply chain, a process in South Africa,  all the way through to the final destination warehouse in the United Kingdom.