Customs

Many companies are struggling with the new GVMS system that went live in the United Kingdom on 1 January 2022.

It is essential to comply with all customs rules and regulations. Non-compliance can lead to delays, fines, or even refusal of your shipment. Sometimes the line between compliance and non-compliance is thinner than companies realize. We are seeing an increased number of issues with imported bike parts, where the Customs Authority sees them not as bike parts but as non-assembled bicycles.

How you classify your goods from a customs point of view matters. Wrongly classifying your goods can lead to delays in your customs declaration process or delays when the Customs Authorities detain a shipment at the border. It can also lead to higher duties and even significant fines.

To enable our customers to digitally submit their export declarations directly to the Customs Authority, we have developed our CustomsOnline portal. 

When goods are bought or sold “Free on Board” (FOB) it means that the seller delivers the goods to a ship at a port previously agreed to by the seller and the buyer. The seller loads the goods onto the ship. The buyer then takes care of the import formalities and transportation to the final destination. Free on Board is one of the oldest Incoterms. It dates back to when goods were carried by sailing ships and it was one of the terms when the Incoterms were first released in 1936. It is also one of the most used commercial terms.