Customs delays
have affected
almost 87%
of those who
participated in the FTW
airfreight survey – with
only 13.3% saying their
operations had not been
affected at all.
“A lot of our cargo is very
valuable. These shipments
are thus routinely stopped
with officials requesting
supporting documents,”
said Eugene Duvenage,
airfreight export manager:
national at Röhlig-
Grindrod Logistics.
He told FTW that the
problem with this was that
the shipments were then
not released in time for
the scheduled f light. “This
means we incur storage
costs and worse, an irate
customer,” said Duvenage.
Owner of Mercury
Freight, Margrit Wolff,
told FTW that her
company experienced
customs delays “all the
time”. Airfreight is used
for valuable cargo because
of the minimised risks
with faster delivery. “But
Customs seems to query
each export shipment
worth over a million rand,”
she said.
Chris Williams, from
SA-based import company,
Mr Filter, pointed out that
customs delays – “for no
apparent reason” – were
longer than transit times.
National operations
director for National
Freight Examiners, Albert
Venter – accredited by the
South African Revenue
Service (Sars) to “handle
the examination of cargo”
– commented that Customs
stopped less than 5% of
all goods entering South
Africa.
“The issue is that the
shipping agents expect
the examination process
to be completed within an
unrealistic time-frame,”
he said, pointing out that
agents tended to “forget”
that 95% of the shipments
passed through Customs
with no problem.
“It’s a give and take
situation and I think
the airfreight stops are
progressing well for highvalue
shipments,” said
Venter, admitting that
the challenges for lowvalue
cargo seemed
higher.
Another freight
forwarder who
commented
anonymously disagreed
with Venter, pointing
out that his company
had, on average,
two out of five
shipments stopped
by Customs. “This
affects our service level
agreements with our
customers,” he said.
Bernd Julicher,
director at Skyservices -
which specialises in the
shipment of perishables
– commented that the
export process at Customs
was “working well in
general”, adding that
imports were sometimes
delayed. “But this is due
to control measures which
are standard practice
internationally.”
Logistics coordinator
at Redpath Mining South
Africa pointed out that
his company had factored
customs delays into its
strategy to ensure there
was minimal impact on its
delivery of imported goods.
“Provided we use the most
professional shippers, we
experience little or no delays
at Customs,” said Mike
Westcott of import and
export company, Bamic.
