Freight Forwarders and Customs Brokers face increased costs, regulations and competition in a challenging economy. Layoffs, customer losses and costly mistakes cut into a dwindling bottom line. How can you turn it around?
POET-Forwarder is an order expediting and control system providing Custom Brokers and Freight Forwarders with a web-based solution allowing their clients, suppliers, agents, consolidators, distribution centers, and related parties access to information, while generating the Broker & Forwarder signficant cost savings in the logistic chain.
Reduce Costs and Salvage the Bottom Line
By using our automated systems, our clients are able to reduce costs by eliminating repetitive tasks, interacting with one system instead of many, and reducing data entry errors with automatic posting of information. With new government requirements, including ISF and others, you can quickly comply and avoid massive fines and penalties (ISF penalties can be $5,000 per file).
A Solution that Eases Your Pain
Many new clients are using out-of-date systems that require too much manual work, resulting in constant error corrections and demand the use of supplemental systems to complete many of the day-to-day tasks.
POET Integration and Functionality
POET Forwarder eases these challenges by placing you in one robust environment that has all of the features and functionality you need. Of course, if you have existing systems or client systems that require connectivity, our experts can build custom interfaces for you to automatically share data – without retyping information – and risking expensive mistakes.
Can an Obsolete System Compete against POET FORWARDER?
In today’s environment, your customers have more choices than ever. They’re looking for cost effective choices that are easy to use and reduce the risk that their shipment will have problems.
They want to reduce training cycles and be able to put new people on the system quickly.
If your system is “functional” but out-of-date, you are doing too much manual work, incurring additional labor costs on tasks that could be automated, and are reducing your chances of selling new accounts that expect current, up-to-date systems.
How POET Delivers
POET provides product planners with tools
The buy planning process allows the buyers and the product planners to strategize the corporate requirements for future marketing of the company. The plan that is developed at the Item/SKU level is then used to provide a worksheet electronically via email distribution to the proper overseas buying or contracting operation.
Overseas Office support for contracting and negotiations
The system generates a worksheet from the planning process. The worksheet is then used by the overseas buying operations to help negotiate price and the delivery times. The work done by the contracting staff is then entered into a web-enabled portal to report that contract work which is sent via email to the Headquarter buying operation.
Purchasing is simplified by leveraging the data entered by contract departments overseas.
The buyers need only enter the office that is doing the contract work to get all the information. The system provides the feed to the current purchasing system. e2e logistics may need to build interfaces to the current system or you can use a feature that will print your customer’s Purchase Order with an overlay providing their logo and other customized information. The branding process will include your customer’s logo on all transmitted PDF reports including:
- Forecast Worksheet
- Contract Worksheet
- Purchase Order Worksheet
- Ready to Ship Report
- SLI (Shipper’s Letter of Instruction)
- Shipped from Manufacturer Report
- Received at the consolidator
- Feed to ISF Reporting Module
- PREALERT
- Your Clearance information
- Received at Distribution Center
The data base that supports the POET process is geared for international trade. Weights and measures can be entered in metric or USA formats. Dates can be entered as MMDDYY or YYMMDD. Costs can be in foreign currency or US Dollars. Classification of goods are part of the system that provide, UN, HTS, Freight Classifications along with IMCO and IATA hazard classifications.
Suppliers can Report when the Goods are Available through a Web-Portal Connection
When the goods that were ordered are ready for shipment POET provides a portal for the suppliers to indicate that the goods are ready. The system allows for the splitting of items that may need to be shipped at a later date due to many reasons. This information is sent back to your Headquarters to allow the Purchasing or Logistics group to issue Shipping instructions. The report reflects what is in the pipeline, including: On Order, Acknowledged, Ready, Shipped from Supplier, In transit to the consolidator, Received by Consolidator, and what is in transit from the origin to the destination.
You can issue an SLI (Shippers Letter of Instructions) through the System
The system provides an ability to issue instructions for the import shipment that will automatically determine the best port of destination, the broker to use in that port, the type of service such as Mini-land-bridge and the consignee determines the optimal port to ship to. The Agent at the port is also determined. The SLI is typically automatically emailed to the Supplier, Agent at the origin port, the contracting office and the user who issued the SLI. Importantly the Buyer/Logistics person can split shipments to go to different distribution centers.
Suppliers Reference the SLI to Report Shipments from their Location
Both FCL (Full Container Load) and LCL (less than container load) are supported in the process. If there is a Full Container load, it is expected that the Origin Forwarder/Agent will book the cargo with the steamship or airline, and advise the Supplier of booking information. LCL are expected to be delivered to the consolidation point indicated on the SLI or instructed by the Forwarder. The Supplier is expected to indicate all items that were shipped from their location. There may be several shipments from the supplier when there are multiple destinations or if the goods exceed the trucking capacity at the time.
POET Provides for Reporting of Goods at the Consolidation Point
It is important that the system can tell the Buyers, Product Planners etc. where the goods are currently located. The receiving process records who delivered the goods; whether they are damaged or not, records the weights and measures of the goods. This information is typically passed on to the Forwarder electronically and through an email. Others are notified such as the supplier who shipped it, thereby giving them a POD (Proof of Delivery). It also notifies them of any damage to the goods.
Overseas Agent/Forwarder is Able to Issue Pre-Alerts through POET
The POET system then provides for a portal where the agent provides all the final shipping data including the master, house bill, vessel/carrier/voyage departure port, date, transfer points, transfer vessels and planned arrival date, time and port. In addition, this module provides for the Container Load plan and generates an ASN (Advanced Shipping Notice) with line item detail of what is in the container. The ASN data is sent via email as a CSV/Excel file that can be used by the broker and or Distribution Centers.
Broker Operations are Supported by POET in Summary
The broker can provide the entry clearance information to POET including the Vessel/Flight arrival details, shipping or trucking to the Distribution Center, and the entry number that the shipment was entered under. Further there is the ability to indicate all the costs involved. This information is used in the POET status tracking module.
POET also Provides On-Line Status, Reports and Exception Reporting
The POET system has an on-line system that can be accessed by your buyers, product planners to determine the status of their requirements. In addition, there are reports that are emailed to the participants to advise them of exceptions from the process.
Contact Us
Call us today at 631-845-1010 or complete our contact form for more information.