The Europe-based freight forwarder streamlined their documentation process and ensured greater customer satisfaction by switching to electronic bills of lading with Trade Len.
The customer
As one of the largest freight forwarders in southern Italy with a specialisation in the African Trades, Roberto Bucci manages various types of commodities on behalf of their clients – from private goods customers to large manufacturers. Bucci is also part of a group that owns and operates the Flavia Gioia port in Naples, Italy.
The challenge
Bucci uses INTTRA for their bookings and SI process and ship on CIF terms. This required them to pay for the freight. Prior to releasing the goods to the consignee via a telex release of the bill of lading, the company had to wait for a guarantee of payment. The freight forwarder would generally receive payments often a day after or two prior to vessel arrival. Bucci would require the consignee to understand the release process at the destination and would need to have documentation for the release of cargo
(surrendering the BL at destination).
In theory, the transit time from Europe to Africa is short, however, the processing time for receiving payment and managing couriers to the destination increases the risk of delays in the release of the cargo and the potential for demurrage and detention costs.
Identifying areas to meet our customers’ expectations and speeding up the delivery of goods at destination using digitisation is what working with an experienced 3PL means.
Handling the telex release is not an automated process within the carrier’s system and therefore, the freight forwarder would need to begin an email correspondence requesting the issuance of the release to the carrier. The query response time could take anywhere from 2 hours to 2 days.
The turn time needed to process a standard telex release request was not satisfying our customers, at destination they were impatiently waiting to receive our confirmation, especially when the cargo was about to arrive.
This lack of transparency in the internal process within the carrier often required follow-up emails and this frustrated clients. Once the forwarder or shipper received the confirmation email from the carrier that a telex release had been issued, they received a notification email which they had to forward to the consignee at destination. The consignee then had to approach the carrier office at destination to obtain the cargo release. This manual process and siloed systems increased the risk of delays.
The solution
Bucci turned to TradeLens for a solution to help manage large amounts of documentation and bring transparency to their business. The solution lay in switching Bucci’s manual documentation process to a digital one through TradeLens eBL. Underpinned by blockchain technology, Trade Lens eBL digitises the paper BL and all other related trade documentation, capturing the flexibility of an original bill, at the click of a button. The digital platform provided Bucci with a secure space to share important documentation with approved partners anywhere in the world.
TradeLens eBL had the solution, without changing the way we’re doing business, using our standard shipping instructions channel, in one click the originals were surrendered back to Carrier and carrier’s system was updated.
The results
With TradeLens eBL, Bucci was able to digitise their document processes and remove the risks related to use of paper original BLs as documents were immediately available to all concerned parties and all changes could be tracked and traced.
We had a seamless experience, efficient and smooth on boarding to the easy-to-use platform. With this solution, we believe we can become a leader in the sector regarding the speed in the container release at destination.
Switch to a digital way of sharing
With TradeLens eBL, there’s no paperwork and so no risk of delay or loss. Your documents can be shared with your approved partners with just a few clicks.
Benefits of using Tradelens eBL
Share trade documents securely, enjoy increased transparency and eliminate costs with TradeLens eBL. Learn more about the benefits of going digital.
