To meet the relatively
complex demands
of the consolidation
market, a computer
customs clearing software
system has to be carefully
tuned to achieve a fast,
easy and efficient result,
according to Jan-Louis (J-L)
Koekemoer, GM and systems
architect at Shipshape
Software.
“Our software is very well
suited to consolidators of
road, air and sea modes of
transport,” he told FTW.
Over the past year the road
freight fraternity in particular
received a previously unseen
amount of attention. This
was brought about by the
SA Revenue Service’s (Sars)
electronic requirements for
manifest information.
“Our systems
were developed
and adapted
so as to ease
the burden of
high-volume
processing of
consolidated
shipments,”
said Koekemoer.
“Load planning for
road freight
becomes
easy.
Even
if the
individual
shipments
in the
consolidation
are already precleared,
the
user can
still drag and drop individual
shipments in and out of
a consolidation, and then
submit the final manifest.”
At the same time, the
system also accommodates
airfreight and seafreight
modules.
“We are particularly well
positioned in the airfreight
consolidations market,”
Koekemoer added. “Our
system has features such as
system-generated pre-alerts
and electronic submission
of air waybill information
(including the air cargo
consolidation manifest)
to the airlines. This,
in turn, brings about
a cost saving for the
agent as well as
giving him realtime
electronic
status updates for
each individual consignment
directly from the airlines.”
Koekemoer also pointed
to another aspect that is
often overlooked in the
consolidation business – the
accounting element – and
stressed that the design of
their system had given special
consideration to this specific
function.
“Simply put,” he said, “most
agents incur costs and pay
creditors on master level. But
they invoice their clients and
report profitability down to
house bill level.
“Our built-in accounting
module makes perfect sense
of these requirements,
and this allows agents to
monitor profitability for each
individual sub-shipment and,
ultimately, for each of their
clients.”
INSERT & CAPTION
‘Particularly
well positioned
in the airfreight
consolidations
market.’
– J-L Koekemoer
