Simarco Team Celebrate 25 Years

The Simarco team got together to celebrate 25 years in business last weekend, with a gala event held at the amazing Braxted Park venue in Great Braxted, near Witham, Essex.

Staff members from offices and warehouses throughout the UK, including Bedford, Bristol, Gloucester, Heathrow, Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent and Witham head-office, came together to enjoy an evening of festivities and celebration that marked our major milestone.

Braxted Park is a prestigious country manor house with 500 acres of parkland and a history dating back to 1342. The venue is one of Essex’s most desired locations for weddings, charity balls, festivals, business events, photo shoots and filming, which made it the perfect setting to celebrate our silver anniversary.

Formed in 1997, we have grown to be one of the UK’s leading independent freight operators, and now provide logistics services and supply chain solutions to an ever growing global customer base.

Simon Reed, Chief Executive, recently expressed his gratitude for this momentous achievement, saying “Thank you to everyone at Simarco for playing their part in our success.  And thank you to all our partners for their business and support over the years.” 

Customs Services Essential To Supply Chain

Customs related services have always been a critical part of the supply chain, but the need for importers and exporters to get this right has never been more essential than it is today.

Since the UK left the EU, Brexit enforced changes to the customs procedures, which added back another level of complexity. UK Customs then changed the entire process for all global imports when CHIEF, the electronic platform for submitting them, was replaced by CDS at the turn of this month, with Exports due to follow in March 2023.

We have structured our customs team to ensure we are able to offer a seamless customer experience, which is free from avoidable delays. Collectively, we are handing over 100,000 import entries every year from around the globe, covering a vast range of product types and with varying customs procedures.

Being connected to all the UK’s container ports, roro ports and customs terminals, we are able to provide fully automated and effective customs entry solutions for both imports and exports.

Please do not hesitate to contact us about us being your one-stop approach to all your customs requirements. We are confident we will provide you with peace of mind, allowing you to concentrate on growing your international business.

Simarco Launch It’s First LMS

Simarco – Training to be the best: 

As part of our commitment to the ongoing development of our employees, we are excited to launch Simarco’s first ever Learning Management System.

This is the first time our colleagues will have access to a repository of easy to access self-development courses on all sorts of topics, including Microsoft applications such as Excel, wellbeing, and management.

We will also use the platform to drive compliance as well as boost our employee onboarding experience.

We are committed to helping our colleagues develop in an environment that supports curiosity, growth and learning, to allow them the opportunity to reach their full potential and thrive.

Servicing Amazon Euro Fulfilment Centres

It is impossible to deny the increasing presence of Amazon within the e-commerce market, as they continue to play a major role in the sales growth of many SME retail businesses through their marketplace platform.

The option to sell products online and to have the ‘sales order to consumer’ fulfilment taken care of by Amazon is often advantageous to smaller and fledgling businesses, who can then focus more heavily on their products and growth.

However, getting your products into their European fulfilment centres is not always easy and has certainly not been simplified since the UK left the European Union. If this is something your business can relate to, or you are just looking to improve your costs and/or delivery times, then Simarco have the perfect solution for you.

Simarco are distributing to many of Amazon’s European (and UK) fulfilment centres on a daily basis and provide our European e-commerce service as outlined below:

• Collections throughout UK.
• Dedicated daily line haul.
• All commodities catered for (including ADR products).
• Non Inventory services available.
• Consolidated stock movements to most of European AMAZON distribution centres.
• On-line access to your shipment data including export entries/Import clearances.

If you are working with Amazon in Europe, we would be delighted to hear from you to discuss more about how we can connect you better.

Leading The Way, Everyday To France

Simarco continue to lead the way into France with our established daily groupage and express services into Paris and beyond. For those still feeling the logistical impact of Brexit on their exports to our nearby neighbours, then it’s time to talk to one of the industry leaders.

With driver accompanied trailers leaving both our Witham and Stoke-On-Trent warehouses every weekday, we offer competitive pricing for standard and express services to customs compliant French depots, and for door deliveries throughout the country.

Our services can include fully automated customs clearance in the UK and in France, which can be enhanced for DDP shipments using our DDP Regime 42 smart border clearance process. If you are not using the Regime 42 option to eliminate delays caused by VAT and duty payments, then please contact us to find out more.

Simarco are one of the leading logistics providers in Europe. Through the use of the latest technology and an extensive network of partners, we provide a reliable and cost effective connection to Europe for your business.

Want to know more? Contact us now.

Simarco Launch Employee Engagement Forum

We are delighted to introduce the launch of “Simarco Connections”, a forum to further enhance our employee engagement across the company.

Simarco is committed to creating a positive and collaborative workplace, connecting with each other, and becoming one Team.  

Our employee engagement forum is just one of many employee engagement initiatives that we are undertaking to ensure we create a supportive and productive environment, leading ultimately to an even better experience for our colleagues and valued customers alike.

CDS Replaces CHIEF Next Week – Are You Ready?

As we have communicated previously, HMRC will be changing the customs process for import and export ports by replacing the current CHIEF system for imports next week. According to HMRC, the Customs Declaration Service (CDS) will be in place as outlined below.

• 30 September 2022 – CDS will replace CHIEF for UK import declarations.
• 31 March 2023 – CDS will replace CHIEF for UK export declarations..

Therefore, the import changes are effective NEXT WEEK.

ACTION IMPORTERS ABSOLUTELY MUST TAKE NOW… 

1. All businesses MUST register themselves for CDS through their own Government Gateway portal. 
   Get access to the Customs Declaration Service – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) 
   
   A trader checklist is available from the GOV.UK website. To download, please use this link: 
   UK Trader Checklist: Moving to CDS 
2. Importers with Customs Deferment facilities MUST set up a new direct debit for their accounts to work with CDS. The current CHIEF direct debit will not work after 30th September.
   Set up CDS Deferment Direct Debit

Please note that if you have not registered for CDS prior to the dates outlined above, an export or import declaration cannot be made on your behalf. This will mean your goods are unable to export from UK (for UK departures) or clear UK customs (for UK arrivals).

 If you have any questions, please contact cdsenquiries@simarco.com 

Are You Using Regime 42 For Your DDP EU Exports?

By using the DDP Regime 42 scheme, Simarco are able to improve EU customs efficiencies, and even reduce door to door transit times, for DDP export shipments moving to European Union countries.

Regime 42 allows for an intra-community supply of goods to another EU Member State.  Under this scheme, we can present goods to our French partner to clear into EU free circulation at the time of arrival at the French border (Calais or Dunkirk). An intra-community supply is then made for the goods to the destination EU Member State (if located outside France).

The benefits include:

• Simarco can customs clear goods at the EU frontier SMART border (Calais or Dunkirk) and defer the payment of Import VAT, so no monies need to be exchanged.  Should duty be incurred, this cost will be charged back to the GB exporter.
• This avoids delays in delivering goods, or waiting for consignees to pay Import VAT or duty before the release of goods at destination.
• Larger shipments can deliver directly on an international trailer, rather than transhipping via one of our partner hubs, by removing the barrier of customs clearance and/or payment delays at final destination.

Simarco are able to set these benefits up in as little as 2 days, but we do require some forms completed to do so:

• Power of Attorney (authorising our customs partner to fulfil the import formalities on your behalf in France).
• Fiscal Mandate (appointing our tax partner as your Tax Agent, who then register you for VAT in France and report the transactions to French Tax Authorities for VAT and Intrastat purposes).
• EU EORI Application (unless you already have an EORI).
• Regime 42 Process Document to be signed by the consignee. (If goods are for delivery outside of France, they need to sign this to confirm their understanding of the goods being cleared in France, but still need to enter the purchase into their records as usual).

Unfortunately, for French deliveries, the process of registering for VAT takes approximately 3 months. However, during this time, you can share your Tax Agents global VAT number and still use Regime 42 for DDP sales into all other EU countries.

Once set up, there will be specific requirements for the export commercial invoice and a need to provide the consignee with a copy of the customs entry, but Simarco will guide you through this process at the time.

If you would like to find out more about the above feature, then please do not hesitate to contact us.

China: Covid Lockdowns Impacting Exports

Cities throughout China are still battling Covid with lockdown measures, which has impacted export production in many areas.

Right now, there are believed to be 33 cities in the country that have partial or full Covid restrictions in place, which is affecting 65 million people.

Chengdu was the most recent city to go into full lockdown earlier this month. With 21.5 million residents, this became the largest lockdown since Shanghai’s eight week closure in June. It’s citizens have endured heatwaves, power cuts, food shortages, quarantine and last week an earthquake that killed 65 people.

Other key economic centres, including the port cities of Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Dalian and Tianjin have also been subject to Covid measures. Most of the 18 million people in the city of Shenzhen remain under some form of restrictions.

There has been a general dip in demand for Chinese products, which followed the post outbreak period of astronomical ocean freight rates. Therefore, with the country also still enforcing its zero tolerance approach to Covid, there looks to be challenging times ahead for the country and its export production.

New Felixstowe Port Strike Set

Workers from the Unite Union at the Port of Felixstowe have now decided on another eight day strike from September 27th 2022.

The confirmed date for the industrial action is due to overlap with the upcoming walk out at the Port of Liverpool, which is set for two weeks from Monday. Unite and their members are responsible for both strikes.

Management at Felixstowe had started the process of paying their last wage offer to workers without the approval of the union, in what looked like an attempt to convince workers not to walk out. However, despite their willingness to apply the 7% + £500 increase and backdate it to January, the latest ballot resulted in an overwhelming vote to strike.

Both parties are unsurprisingly blaming each other, although the Port are confident that with declining Asia volumes, the disruption will be kept to a minimum.

Simarco are continuing to monitor the situation and will update on any major developments.