Why Do Many Exporters Find Freight Booking a Challenging Task?

Booking your consignment a space on a ship or an airplane for export to a foreign country is one of the important tasks of the entire supply chain management. If it goes wrong, all your efforts may go in vain and it may cost your business a loss of profits and clients. But, what may go wrong in the freight booking process that looks pretty straightforward? Undoubtedly, a lot! Let’s find out!

Not Able to Find the Best Quote

Because of the unlimited resources and your business’s outdated means to contact different shipping lines, you may have fewer quotes in hand to compare. Consequently, the chances are high that you may regret later for spending unnecessarily on cargo shipping that could have been done in your preferred budget. So, it is important that you receive quotes from different service providers and compare them to strike the best possible deal.

Spending a Lot of Time on Booking

Imagine that you receive quotes from the top freight services in the region. Now, comparing their costs as well as schedules to pick up the most favourable one can be time-consuming, if you do it manually. Either you do it much in advance or find some modern alternative to do it quickly and for the best results.

Documentation Can Be Stressful

In addition to finding the right service, preparing documents for booking can again consume a lot of time. Also, many exporters agree that their export documentation process is highly prone to the human errors which add to delays in booking confirmations. One solution to simplify documentation is booking freight online using a good software tool. It reduces time and errors and brings in the advantage of centralized information storing.

Old Means of Tracking

Just like they stick to the traditional means of booking freights, exporters also use the old ways to track their shipments. On the contrary, those using a freight booking software can enjoy advantages like instant status booking and real-time freight tracking. It may address a lot of issues and concerns.

In conclusion, you business needs a complete software solution which aids everything from booking to managing freights. It may also let you manage other export documents and activities with ease.

How Does a Certificate of Origin Decide the Rate of Traded Goods?

To start with, a certificate of origin (COO) is an important trade document that an exporter may need to prepare as a part of export documentation. As the name suggests, it certifies the origin of goods that a country exports to another. For example, if you export certain products that are produced, manufactured or processed in Australia to Thailand, you must obtain a TAFTA (Thailand-Australia Free Trade Agreement) COO.

So, what would this certificate imply? In simple words, it certifies that the exported goods have their origin in Australia and no other country. Now, the bigger question is that how does it matter? Under the TAFTA regulations, the goods traded between Thailand and Australia would enjoy preferential tariffs. By preferential, it means reduced or lower tariffs that benefit the importers as well as exporters.

Obviously, importing such goods at reduced tariffs let importers extract more profits. For exporters, it is a great opportunity to turn their products competitive in the international markets. Apart from the above-mentioned example, there are different COOs required when you export from Australia to other countries. For instance:

• JAEPA COO for export to Japan
• ChAFTA COO for export to China
• KAFTA COO for export to Korea
• AANZFTA COO for export to New Zealand and various ASEAN countries

To summarize, a COO decides whether your goods get preferred rates or not. In order to build trade relations with more importers, you must understand and adhere to the requirement of this certificate.

It should be noted that what you read so far is about the preferential COOs. In addition, there is another type of COO called the non-preferential COO. Though the purpose of this certificate is the same as it certifies the origin of the imported goods, but it doesn’t demand preferential rates for the same. Among many of its purposes, the most important one is that it is required by an importer to authorize his or her bank for issuing the letter of credit.

You need to type and submit a certificate of origin to a Chamber of Commerce for stamping. In order to accelerate the process, you can do it online using an electronic export documentation tool.

How Can Non-compliant Documentation Affect Your Export Business?

It is common to read and hear stories about export companies paying heavy fines for not being compliant with prescribed trade norms and regulations. Export documentation, in particular, is one of the biggest reasons behind it. Because of the lack of knowledge or ignorance towards the international laws, exporters struggle to prepare fool-proof export documents. For this reason, many of them have begun to invest in export documentation software tools that make this task efficient and simpler.

If you still want to know the importance of one such software, it would be good to learn about the consequences of non-compliant documentations that these tools address. Here are some of them.

Rejections and Delays

Needless to say, non-compliant export documents are bound to face rejections with the approving authorities. For example, a phytosanitary certificate required for export of plants and plant products may get disapproved when submitted to the Department of Agriculture, if it doesn’t meet the designated norms. In addition, it may face issues if it doesn’t match the importing country requirements.

Going further, multiple rejections may lead to unnecessary delays in shipments. One can expect these delays to extend to days or even weeks.

Punishments and Penalties

Non-compliance with the international trade documentation norms may draw legal consequences. For instance, wrong export declarations and incorrect product classifications may lead to confiscation of the consignment. Besides, hefty fines may be levied on the exporters. In severe cases, the exporter may also be at the risk of imprisonment.

Business and Customer Loss

While the above-mentioned consequences are of short terms, non-compliance in documentation can lead to long-term reputation damage. In case your export documents are repeatedly found in non-adherence to the required standards, you may end up losing the trust of various parties. Apart from facing monetary losses, you may also lose some valuable clients forever. Moreover, your business may face the risk of getting blacklisted.

Some of the most common reasons for non-compliance are outdated information, human errors and traditional documentation procedures. In order to deal with each of these issues, you need to find a solution in the form of a good export documentation software tool.