Four containers and a stack of templates
You are shipping four containers of mixed paper to an overseas buyer this week. Each container needs a set of documents: weights, container and seal numbers, loading photos, the buyer and consignee details, the movement documentation your process requires, and whatever the shipping line and the buyer ask for.
Your export administrator has a folder of templates. For each container she copies weights from the weighbridge ticket, container and seal numbers from the loader's sheet, buyer details from the contract email, and attaches photos from the loader's phone. One seal number on the loader's sheet is unclear. One container's photos are missing. The shipping line's booking reference changed and she has to update everything.
She finishes late on Thursday, after two calls to the yard to read seal numbers off the containers themselves, and a message to the loader asking him to send the photos from his own phone. The same thing will happen next week, with different containers.
Why export paperwork is manual
Export documents draw on data from every stage of the shipment, and each stage records it differently.
- Weights are on weighbridge tickets, container numbers on loading sheets.
- Seal numbers are handwritten and sometimes illegible.
- Photos are on personal phones.
- Buyer, consignee and shipping details are in emails.
- Each document is filled in separately, so one change means several edits.
Which documents are required, and what they must contain, is for your business and its advisers to determine. We deal with collecting the data and filling your templates.
What manual export paperwork costs
Errors in export documents can delay shipments, and delays at port cost money in storage and demurrage. Missing documents mean containers wait. Time spent copying data is time not spent checking it.
It also depends on one person. When your export administrator is away, shipments either wait or go with documents prepared by someone less familiar, and the risk of error rises.
How we build shipment records
What we build collects each container's data at loading and fills documents from it.
- Each shipment has a record with buyer, consignee, contract, shipping line, booking reference and destination, entered once.
- At loading, the loader records container number and seal number on a tablet, by scanning or typing with a check digit validation for the container number, and takes the required photos.
- Weights come from the weighbridge, linked to the container.
- Your document templates are filled from the shipment record, so each detail is entered once and appears everywhere it is needed.
- A checklist per shipment shows which documents are complete, which are missing and what data is outstanding.
- Changes, such as a new booking reference, update every document that uses them.
| Data | Captured from | Used in |
|---|---|---|
| Container and seal numbers | Tablet at loading | Every container document |
| Weights | Weighbridge | Weight and movement documents |
| Photos | Tablet at loading | Buyer and inspection packs |
| Buyer and consignee | Shipment record | Every document |
| Booking reference | Shipment record | Shipping line documents |
This week's shipment with a record
The shipment record is set up once for the four containers. As each container is loaded, the loader scans the container number, enters the seal number, takes the photos, and the weighbridge weight links automatically. The documents fill themselves.
The checklist shows all four containers complete except one missing photo, which the loader takes before the container leaves. The shipping line changes the booking reference; the administrator updates it once, and every document follows.
Is export paperwork assembled by hand?
- Every document is filled in separately from several sources.
- Seal numbers are handwritten and sometimes wrong.
- Loading photos are on personal phones.
- Shipments have been delayed by document errors.
- Only one person knows how to prepare the documents.