United Parcel Service announced yesterday a new service and enhancements to its Quantum View Manage visibility service that helps international shippers conduct cross-border trade in a more compliant, timely and efficient manner.
The new service, UPS TradeAbility, helps international shippers identify specific country tariff codes to calculate duties necessary for customs clearance; generate cost estimates for duties, taxes and transportation; and locate compliance information for 34 countries.
Quantum View Manage, UPS' package visibility service, has been enhanced to help U.S. importers clear shipments into the country, audit cleared shipments for correct classification and electronically archive shipment data.
UPS, Atlanta, expects the services to have wide appeal, though it is targeting “primary focus industries” identified by U.S. Customs and Border Protection for extra scrutiny, including apparel, automotive, electronics, footwear, high tech, medical equipment, pharmaceutical and textiles.
The company's international package revenue increased almost 23 percent in the fourth quarter to $1.9 billion, as international average daily package volume rose 5.6 percent.
Key TradeAbility features include:
· Landed Cost provides a door-to-door cost estimate of international shipping including duties, fees, taxes and transportation costs based on the origin, destination and products in a shipment.
· Harmonizer identifies harmonized tariff codes, which are used to describe goods for duty calculation, tariff assessments and documentation filings. It replaces a process that often is done manually, requiring employees to search many volumes of product codes.
Additional UPS TradeAbility compliance services indicate restricted trading parties and identify license needs. Transactions are available to view online for up to 90 days, and customers can download a single transaction or their entire history for their permanent records.
UPS TradeAbility is available on UPS.com or can be integrated into a customer's business applications or Web site using Web services technology.
Quantum View Manage provides visibility of inbound package shipments, allowing importers to see when a package is processed, in transit, when it arrives or to receive an alert if it's delayed. For delayed shipments, a mouse click provides a recommended course of action or creates an e-mail to UPS customs brokerage operations that is automatically populated with information about the shipment.
The service moves the process of auditing and archiving shipments online. Users have one-click access to all associated clearance documents, including images of invoices. Brokerage data are archived online for 45 days, and images are stored online for up to 12 months. Customers can request a CD-ROM of past shipments.
Melissa Campanelli covers postal news, CRM and database marketing for DM News and DMNews.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters
