Shippers should 'go back to basics' in document preparation

Shippers should 'go back to basics' in document preparation

A CALL FOR shippers and forwarding agents to 'go back to basics' in order to improve current inadequate methods of providing information for shipping instructions has been made by Safmarine's sales manager Sandy Long.
"Our staff is spending 80% of their time correcting information received in order to get a bill of lading," she says. "In many instances the persons supplying the information in the first place are vague even on facts as to where the boxes are to be collected or delivered."
Safmarine recently undertook a survey aimed at improving the quality of information supplied in shipping instructions. The outcome derived from a list of 200 shipping instructions surveyed were startling, says Long.
Exactly half the documents were not signed, and 70% had the routings incorrect. A total of 70% did not indicate the difference between carrier haulage and merchant haulage. "We found clients supplying these forms where unaware of the difference in a number of instances, when we called on them," says Long.
In 65% of the instructions payment instructions were either unclear or not provided, while 30% of the instructions were illegible.
"We are not authorised to amend shipping instructions and we have to go back on each occasion to the client to have these documents rewritten," she says.
"This means delays in the shipping of the consignment and we are now being forced to impose penalty charges when documents are late because many of the ports are doing just that. It is becoming a global trend, so there is no way out for the client except to improve the quality of information provided to us.
"We are currently moving into a new global system of information data operations at Safmarine, but what is happening with the existing information provided to us is merely a case of providing what we term 'rubbish in, rubbish out.' The whole situation is unsatisfactory and it is
up to the information providers to observe absolute requirements or suffer the financial consequences."

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