A Custom Solution to Process Commercial Invoices and Expedite Customs Clearance
How can an international courier process commercial invoices and expedite customs clearance to deliver their shipments on time? One of the world’s largest international couriers challenged DATAMARK to envision a custom solution to maintain its reputation for reliable, on-time package delivery anywhere in the world.
Commercial Invoice Document Processing and Contact Center Support
How can an international courier process commercial invoices and expedite customs clearance to deliver its shipments on time? One of the world’s largest international couriers challenged DATAMARK to envision a custom solution to maintain its reputation for reliable, on-time package delivery anywhere in the world.
Background: International Courier Needs to Process Commercial Invoices and Expedite Customs Clearance
One of the world’s largest international couriers needed back-office support to process commercial invoices and expedite customs clearance for package and freight shipments by truck between the United States and Canada. Since DATAMARK specializes in Transportation and Logistics Contact Center and BPO services, they responded to the challenge with a custom solution for their team in India.
First, What Happens During Customs Clearance?
When international or cross-border shipments are transported from one country to another, the items must clear customs before being delivered to the customer. To ensure quick customs clearance, the courier must provide the necessary information about its packages and shipments before sending them. When the shipment arrives at customs, a customs officer inspects it to ensure that it meets import regulations and examines the customs paperwork accompanying the package to assess import duties, taxes, and fees.
What Documents Are Needed to Clear Customs?
Customs paperwork includes key documents such as a commercial invoice, packing slip and shipping label. The commercial invoice is critical as it contains information about the shipper, the receiver, the airway bill number, and the export date. Customs paperwork must be accurate and complete to prevent delays in shipments.
The Challenge: Create a Custom Solution to Quickly Process Commercial Invoices
The international courier needed a solution to efficiently process commercial invoices, ensuring timely delivery for shipments between its customers in the United States and Canada. The client also required a contact center queue to address any issues with processing commercial invoices, including missing or incorrect information. Additionally, all commercial invoices had to be processed within 24 hours to ensure quick customs clearance.
The Solution: 24-hour Service and a Streamlined Document Processing System Leveraging India
Tapping into its global pool of talent, DATAMARK hired an international document processing team split between Mexico and India, strategically leveraging the skilled workforce available in India. This allowed for 24-hour service over multiple shifts. Approximately 24 staff members who joined the international document processing team had to be trained in the courier’s commercial invoice process and in the use of the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System. The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System is an international system of names and numbers for commodity classification. It is used by customs agencies to establish tariffs and import fees, as well as to identify restricted or regulated imports and exports.
Streamlining Document Processing: Lean and Six Sigma Methodologies and DATAMARK Experts
Taking responsibility for this critical back-office function, DATAMARK also improved the process through Lean and Six Sigma methodologies. DATAMARK’s Software Development team created a digital note-insertion tool to save time and avoid manually writing notes to update missing or incorrect information on the commercial invoices. Through this analysis, DATAMARK removed another manual step in the process by eliminating the need to print and scan additional commercial invoice information arriving via fax server.
Contact Center Services to Process Commercial Invoices and Expedite Customs Clearance
To further ensure 24-hour processing of commercial invoices for their client, DATAMARK established a Contact Center Queue to clarify customs paperwork before the shipments reach the border between the United States and Canada. This Contact Center Queue comprises trained contact center agents who handle both outbound and inbound calls from and to shippers to resolve issues with merchandise descriptions, harmonized codes, and delivery names and addresses.
For this client, the Contact Center Team is based in a DATAMARK facility in Mexico, along the U.S.-Mexico border. Each agent speaks flawless, unaccented English. Access to a talented, bilingual workforce is one of the advantages of establishing contact center operations in this region.
The Results: Customs Clearance in 24 Hours or Less
DATAMARK delivers a near-shore to far–shore outsourced document processing solution to ensure that commercial invoices are processed within 24 hours or less. In this way, the international courier client can avoid shipment delays at the U.S.–Canada border.
Benefits of the Outsourced Document Processing and Contact Center Solution:
DATAMARK was thrilled to apply its strengths in business strategy, document processing, and outsourcing global talent to help an international courier client stay on track and on time. Solution: Analysis, Documentation, and Improvement with Business Process Outsourcing.
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