Fees - Fees - Fees and More Fees

Good Day - all the talk in transportation for the public is the amount of money airlines and even banks are making millions on fees.  Fees for baggage, fees for the use of services provided by the service provider and as you all know, in the maritime business, we have surcharges, port fees, documentation fees, even fees to use the live customer service line instead of booking or using the online services provided by carriers and freight intermediaries. 

One good way to avoid fees is to get to know the details of the business and in doing so, do more yourself.  In international cargo shipping, you really need to understand the business in detail to avoid many fees. 

Documentation fees, for example...many exporters and importers can avoid many of these fees by doing certain processes themselves.  Exporters can file their own AES or Ex Dec.  Importers can do their own cargo customs reporting, to avoid paying brokers to do this for them.  Intermediaries can file their own AMS and ISF for their shipments and avoid this charge from the carriers.  Exporters and Intermediaries can electronically send in bookings to Ocean carriers without even picking up the phone. 
Understanding the details of how the business works and doing more yourself can avoid some fees that do add up over time.  These are also places where, if you are a carrier, freight forwarder, broker, importer or exporter, that you can add to your own revenue stream by doing these services for your clients. 

Yes, this is a self serving post because Artemus does provide training in how to "do it yourself" We even have a class coming up in Virginia Beach VA on November 28 that will review all the critical shipping process and give you the tools to "do it yourself".  If your not local, the same class is available online.

Artemus also provides software, systems and support to provide you with the tools and training needed to take your service under your own control, save money and hopefully provide more profit to your bottom line.

The bottom line is that the more you know about the process or service you are working with, the more you can ultimately save money by doing more yourself.   
And yes, TECHNOLOGY is key here so give us a call and ask us how we can help!  866-744-7101

Artemus OUT!

BONDS - Can't live without them nor would you want to

Surety Bonds, Carrier Bonds, Continuous Bonds, Importer Bonds, Broker Bonds, James Bonds..we have heard them all in the shipping industry. Does anyone know the purpose of a bond? What about the history and why these are such an important part of our industry.

Giving credit to Wikipedia for information contained within, Bonds can be traced back to 2700 BC. Yep. before the birth of Christ, the BOND existed (it came before the SCAC Code). You can thank our own bad behavior for the existance of a bond. As simply defined...The Bond ensures the obligator pays the obligatee and protects the contract of carriage for cargo. In the business of Artemus, our clients need bonds to transact with Customs, in several countries, not just the US.

Most of our clients start off with an Importer Bond...to mainly cover the obligations of paying duty and taxes for imported goods. Then, our clients obtain a carrier bond or continuous bond to allow their ability to transact with Customs and meet all requirements of those transactions. Although many of our clients can obtain a bond with corporate financials and proper corporate structure, a small number of clients are required to obtainer a letter of credit from their bank to back the bond amount or provide personal guarentees. Artemus referes clients to bond underwriting company's who work with us all the time and support our initial set up process and therefore giving our clients a step up in the process of securing the neccesary bonds.

The bond underwriting business is a $3.5 Billion dollar business each year. There are many other types of bonds not related to international trade but in order to transact with Customs, trade into and out of the US as well as provide contracts of carriage for cargo under your company's Bill of Lading, a bond is a neccesary and comforting part of the process. In short, they protect you and therefore make a lot of sense for the security and safety of cargo and your business

Don't sweat the Bonds, we can help you get them and our partners are very eager and anxious to assist. If they writing more bonds, that means more cargo is flowing, more providers are sprouting up and in short, our economy is growing...which are all good things.

Until next time, Artemus OUT!

Does investment in Technology or Service give you an advantage?

Technology or Service - Some say they can be one in the same but the experience in our industry would argue that they are very different. Service is the interaction with the client (your people)...the alerts, the phone calls, the emails, the overtime hours getting the job done. Technology supports service but so many use Technolgy as a "service" or more specifically, "self service"

The way we see it here at Artemus is that service is and always will be human interaction with the customer. The "may I help you", or "would you like me to call you when.....". or even "there has been an issue with your shipment, we did X and all is back on track". or, "I'll do that for you" That's service.

Our clients are telling us that to compete, they need access to better systems and technology, they need to move, send, received and provide more information. But none of them ask us to make technology replace them. The small to medium size carrier or freight intermediary wants to be close to the client. They need the phone, the want to talk to them but they want the ability to proactively advise and service them, update them, counsel them or even replace much of the time consuming work they perform with smart technology applications and smart process improvements.

NONE of the client of Artemus ask us to find the most advanced technology for them so that they can replace their service with it.

The final facts are these...in international shipping, service will always be what makes you successful and technology will hopfully go from a mentality of "serve yourself" to let us serve you better and in doing so, technology will make our clients better service providers and also make them more profitable.

So, does an investment in technology or service give you an advantage? The investment in service, which includes people first and technology second, gives you an advantage and if you invest in people first, then the investment in technology should make you more profitable.

Artemus OUT!

ECONOMY BAD? BET YOU DIDN'T KNOW THIS BUT.......

Exports from the US are up....how far up? RECORD LEVELS. Yes, that is what I said, RECORD LEVELS. Consider the details in this press release of FACTS from the Export-Import Bank of the United States.....April 2011, the US Exported goods and services of $175.6 Billion...the largest one month total...EVER RECORDED! Yes, thats the facts.

In addition to that..Exports are up 16% over last year. The trade deficit, (Exports to Imports) is down $47 Billion. So, that means we are exporting more and either staying constant or probably reducing our imports. Isn't that a good thing? Long Term loan guarentees on exports is up 34% so even the banks see a trend that is growing. Who is buying more from the US? Let's see, there is Turkey, South Africa, Panama, Taiwan, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Indonesia...wait...Hong Kong and Indonesia? I thought we imported a lot from them. Nice to see they are starting to return the favor!

WOW, check this out...our current President made a campaign promise of doubling our exports by 2014. Everyone, including those in this blog, had a great chuckle. BUT, the facts are that at the current annual increase rate of 16.7% we are on today, we will meet that goal since we only need to have an annual increase of 15% year over year when he took office to double it.

But, why doesn't anyone talk about this? Why doesn't that have an impact on unemployment rates in the US? Why is all of a sudden, Manufacturing is cool and upcoming? Well, you'll have to return here next month to get those answers.

TECHNOLOGY IN TRADE - YES, WE ARE BEHIND!

Technology usage in international transportation and trade is a must. One of the oldest industries is one of the slowest to ditch the paper and go "e". E-Commerce is an old term that is now be replaced by terms like "cloud", "virtual", "flash", "beam" etc etc. Moving information without even a file or just a transfer through blue tooth, beaming, place in a virtual environment.

But in international shipping, why can't we ditch the paper and go "E" in total.

Example....a Bill of Lading....still in so many places in the US, you have to present it to get cargo...why can we just show up and beam the information to you? Why can't I upload it to you from a flash drive....or why can I just send you one of these QR Code things on email or from my hand held device or smart phone?

Got a smart phone? Click on the image below and scan it with a smart phone app bar code scanner....You'll see what I mean!

I could put all the information in a Bill of Lading and store it on a little image like this....so when I scan it with my smart phone, it loads my system and WHOOSH...no data entry, no paper, nothing?

Why can't we get over it and lose the paper!

So many other industries, even RETAIL can keep inventorys with bar codes and scanners....I can use my smart phone, scan a bar code and get an instant BEST PRICE for an item with walking

distance...within seconds! Why can't the shipping industry DITCH THE PAPER and go totally "E"

At Artemus in 2011, our clients will have that option....and provide their clients with electronic transfer of shipment data, automatic upload and download to avoid data entry and state of the art communication abilities to lessen the time it takes to do the work and provide their clients with high end services in a totall web based, cost effective manner.

Artemus clients are going "E", why can't the rest of the industry go "E" in total for all transacting?

Cheers!

TECHNOLOGY IN TRADE - YES, WE ARE BEHIND!

Technology usage in international transportation and trade is a must. One of the oldest industries is one of the slowest to ditch the paper and go "e". E-Commerce is an old term that is now be replaced by terms like "cloud", "virtual", "flash", "beam" etc etc. Moving information without even a file or just a transfer through blue tooth, beaming, place in a virtual environment.

But in international shipping, why can't we ditch the paper and go "E" in total.

Example....a Bill of Lading....still in so many places in the US, you have to present it to get cargo...why can we just show up and beam the information to you? Why can't I upload it to you from a flash drive....or why can I just send you one of these QR Code things on email or from my hand held device or smart phone?

Got a smart phone? Click on the image below and scan it with a smart phone app bar code scanner....You'll see what I mean!

I could put all the information in a Bill of Lading and store it on a little image like this....so when I scan it with my smart phone, it loads my system and WHOOSH...no data entry, no paper, nothing?

Why can't we get over it and lose the paper!

So many other industries, even RETAIL can keep inventorys with bar codes and scanners....I can use my smart phone, scan a bar code and get an instant BEST PRICE for an item with walking

distance...within seconds! Why can't the shipping industry DITCH THE PAPER and go totally "E"

At Artemus in 2011, our clients will have that option....and provide their clients with electronic transfer of shipment data, automatic upload and download to avoid data entry and state of the art communication abilities to lessen the time it takes to do the work and provide their clients with high end services in a totall web based, cost effective manner.

Artemus clients are going "E", why can't the rest of the industry go "E" in total for all transacting?

Cheers!

Technology - What is the future for International Transportation and Trade?

I am sure this topic has been written about over and over. The bottom line is.....the US Transportation and Trade Industry is NOT taking advantage of all that is available. Why? simple, competition!

Let me explain, in a recent speech given at Old Dominion Propeller club, the question was, where do I see the biggest opportunities for graduating college students in the Maritime Industry? I say, technology...the ability to take a work process and automate or program a product to conduct that process electronically. Why, because it makes sense, it allows electronic transfer of data, correcting mistakes automatically, control strategies for inaccurate data or data combinations, it allows electronic checking and for the sole purpose of cutting out errors and increasing satisfaction of the client....the ultimate user. So, staff would then focus on building relationships with clients and less on data entry, double entry and manual "checking". All those last things being archaic ideas.

Example - In Australia in 1999 (yes, 11 years ago) the entire import and export process of a container or piece of cargo was ELECTRONICALLY done. Yep, starting from booking over the phone, to phone recognition link to internal systems, to bringing up history, copying and updating a shipment, transmitting that shipment to transport providers, vessel planners, export documentation, terminals, customs etc. Yep, then picking up the phone and creating an ELECTRONIC appointment to delivery cargo to the terminal, which was sent to a transponder, that was read at the gate, instructions issued, information of receipt back to the carrier, which was electronically sent to planners at the terminal and the carrier and CUSTOMS and AQIS and yep, documents were released ELECTRONICALLY with electronic signatures, incripted files with password protection and oh yeah...ELECTRONIC billing and payment to the back for the shipment.

This was 1999 in Australia. Is this happening in the US today? in some places with some providers and in a few different formats but is there a standard? NOPE. Can everyone access this type of communication? NOPE. Why? Competitive Advantage.

Why can't the US International Trade Industry set some simple standards and require everyone to follow them, from the BIG TERMINALS to the small forwarders?

We have done a great job in focussing on security of cargo and national security with CSI, CTPAT, ACE etc. So, as an industry, let's focuss on being "state of the art" as a whole and not state of the art, as long as you can afford it.

Finally, Artemus will provide electronic data exchange systems to all customers of its transportation software. Visit our website www.artemus.us or call 866-744-7101 and we will show you our approach and our products and show you how affordable they are. So, be ready, get your smart phone, Iphone, computer and electronic internet device and get ready to provide your clients with state of the art service at very, very affordable prices.

Talk to you soon

Artemus OUT!