A business owner has a lot of responsibilities to deal with in a small amount of time. Hiring a customs brokerage becomes an important decision to prevent import brokerage from adding to stress levels. Despite the name, a customs broker handles a lot more than you’d expect.
1. C-TPAT
One of the many complicated things associated with importing is C-TPAT. It is vital for every Brisbane customs broker to know about the Customs-Trade Partnership against Terrorism. This is particularly important for any business owner dealing with US partnerships. As the trade industry in the world grows, so make the threats that want to steal the profits. After 9/11, C-TPAT was a necessary solution to be a step ahead of a growing problem.
There are revisions happening to the trade industry, and these changes are prioritized by customs brokers that keep up with thousands of contacts and partners. Although C-TPAT membership isn’t mandatory, excluding yourself from it may hamper business opportunities. Instead of taking a crash course on C-TPAT, consider hiring a customs broker already familiar with these changes. Even for consultation purposes, their knowledge will make a massive difference in how you deal with C-TPAT.
2. Knowledge
Experience in an ever-changing industry is always worth the price tag. Some of the biggest mistakes in the importing business come from recent rule changes. When requirements or regulations change, they won’t always have a neon flashing sign to make it noticeable. Ignorance is not an excuse in the shipping industry and will usually lead to lost time and money for all parties involved.
This is when hiring a customs broker becomes an essential part of keeping your business alive. They are walking encyclopedias that keep up with the latest happenings in the industry. A customs broker will catch small things that you may miss. Instead of wasting a day fighting penalties, it will be business as usual for your company. The price of consistency is low, and its value to an importer is severely underrated.
3. Guidance
Instead of being hands-on, a customs broker can fill an advisory role. This can be beneficial to your business in multiple ways.
If you’re training someone to handle similar duties, a customs broker is the best source of information. They can coach the trainee and fill them in with information vital to the job. Shadowing an experienced customs broker is the best training money can buy. The trainee will avoid a lot of the common mistakes of beginners while developing several industry contacts. This information and access to contacts would usually take years of experience. With the help of a hired customs broker, it can be accomplished in a short amount of time.
When there are importing issues between your business and the governments of another country, things start to move at a snail’s pace. Hiring a customs broker to act as a liaison between the two parties will significantly speed things up without an error. Maintaining positive relationships with other countries is a big part of the importing business. With the guidance of a customs broker, you will have one less thing to worry about when something impedes the importing process.
4. EDI
Electronic data interchange was created to speed up the import process. Efficiency gets lost during certain operations when there are many moving parts. EDI is one of the many proposed ways to combat this and improve how your business handles online banking services for imports. Since these only targets substances, the process doesn’t suffer from a convoluted setup.
There are plenty of custom brokerage firms and individual brokers that utilize this technology. It saves money, revolutionizes the import process, and handles information in the most streamlined way possible. Brokers trained to use this technology can exchange importer information and documents at lightning speeds. EDI is the answer to balance out how importers handle their day-to-day business with so many days leading to the end-of-the-week crunches.
5. Avoiding mistakes
When you fill out forms, a single mistake can be a costly mistake. Importation entries aren’t something you want to have an off day with, and this is why hiring a customs broker is recommended to handle the most tedious part of importing.
After a while, the forms you fill out begin to look the same. Getting too comfortable with this paperwork is what leads to common mistakes. This problem becomes even bigger when dealing with a portion of the industry where you have minimal knowledge. Since winging isn’t an option, hire a customs broker to fill out the forms. Instead of second-guessing your work, you can prioritize other parts of the business. As an alternative, you can ‘learn as you go’ by hiring a customs broker to fill a consultant role for importation entries.
6. Weights and measures
Multiple laws make sure that goods are correctly weighed. During importing, weights and measures are enforcement you don’t want to forget. It is a standard that is pretty consistent per country but still requires a daily knowledge check. A customs broker will be familiar with the current country protocols and do their due diligence to research any unknown information.
The importance of weights and measures has a lot to do with business flow, and it is the most transparent rule between buyers and sellers in the industry. When you’re doing big business, sticking to the rules of weights and measures will be a significant part of the operation. Like everything else in importing, a customs broker keeps the mistakes to a minimum so that penalties are nonexistent.
A Successful Choice
Once a customs broker is hired, you’ll see immediate benefits. Offloading duties to an equal professional is the responsible thing to do before getting overwhelmed by work. Once your business needs are met, the service will show its actual value.
Therefore, you can see the benefits of hiring a customs broker. It goes without saying that a customs broker is going to help you in many different ways.
