Department 06 · Logistics
Booked, tracked,
and chased.
The part of a job that is entirely unglamorous and entirely capable of undoing the other ninety per cent: getting the thing there, on the day, without a customs surprise.
You go home. It doesn't.Every promise gets a row and a due dateAnswered the same day, not the next working dayA drawing before the quoteUnverifiable is never a passNine desks, one address eachNothing is sent that a human cannot read backThe folder exists before you price itYou go home. It doesn't.Every promise gets a row and a due dateAnswered the same day, not the next working dayA drawing before the quoteUnverifiable is never a passNine desks, one address eachNothing is sent that a human cannot read backThe folder exists before you price it
The case for it
Logistics & dispatch
Nobody notices logistics until it is the only thing anyone can talk about.
A consignment that has not scanned for a day is not yet a problem. It becomes one on the morning of the install, when it is too late to do anything except apologise.
This desk watches the gap. It books the movement, records what was promised, notices when the tracking stops, opens the carrier case, and — the part that actually protects the relationship — tells the client before the date slips rather than after.
What the desk does
Six things, every day, without being asked
Take the whole desk or one line of it. Everything below is included in the department retainer — there is no menu underneath the menu.
01
Dispatch booked
Right carrier for the shape and the deadline, priced against alternatives, booked, labelled, and the paperwork produced.
02
Customs and duty
Commodity codes, commercial invoices, origin, and a landed cost that includes the duty rather than discovering it at the border. Delivered-duty-paid where that is what was quoted.
03
Tracking that is actually watched
Not a tracking number pasted into an email. A consignment that stops moving raises a case while there is still time to do something about it.
04
Proof of delivery, filed
Against the job, where the job lives. The evidence exists on the day you need it in a dispute, which is never the day of the delivery.
05
Install and crew logistics
Access, timings, plant, welfare, and who is holding the keys. The information the crew needs in the format they will actually read on a phone at seven in the morning.
06
A second opinion before it is booked
Anything unusual — dimensions near a limit, a difficult destination, an expensive option — is reviewed before it is committed, not audited afterwards.
Depth
What this desk actually knows
Freight is where confident-sounding software gets expensive. These are the things the desk knows without being asked, because getting any one of them wrong costs money at the border rather than in a report.
Terms of sale
- Incoterms 2020 applied properly — DAP as the sane parcel default, and DDP only on a deliberate decision, because DDP puts the destination duty and import VAT on you and it is routinely agreed by accident.
- The term stated on the commercial invoice, on the quotation and at checkout — the same term in all three places.
- EXW quoted only where the buyer genuinely has a forwarder; it looks cheap on a quote and loses the export evidence you need for zero-rating.
Customs and duty
- EORI on every outbound movement; CN22 or CN23 with a commercial invoice.
- Commodity codes verified against the HMRC Trade Tariff, not guessed and not copied from last time — the code drives the duty rate, and the wrong one is a customs debt that surfaces at audit.
- Descriptions written to what the thing is, in plain terms. “Wooden parts” is how a consignment gets held.
- Preference and origin claimed only where the rules of origin actually support it.
- Returned Goods Relief and inward processing used where they apply, instead of paying duty twice on something that came back for rework.
Timber and packaging
- FSC and PEFC chain-of-custody — what the certificate covers, what it does not, and why a supplier's certificate is not automatically your claim.
- EUDR due-diligence statements for timber entering the EU.
- ISPM 15 — solid wood packaging heat-treated and stamped. An unmarked pallet is the single most common reason a perfectly good consignment is refused entry.
The unglamorous half
- Volumetric weight at the carrier's own divisor (commonly 5000 cm³/kg), measured rather than estimated, because oversize surcharges are applied afterwards and never quoted.
- Insured value set to replacement cost, not invoice value.
- Carrier claim windows watched — most are days, not months, and most claims die of lateness rather than merit.
- Proof of delivery filed against the job, on the day, because the day you need it is eighteen months later in a dispute.
None of this is exotic. It is simply the list that a good shipping manager carries in their head after twenty years — written down, and applied to every consignment rather than the ones somebody had time to think about.
The run of it
How a job moves through
It is ready
Dimensions, weight, packaging and the real dispatch date.
Options are priced
More than one carrier, with the trade-off stated.
It is booked
Labels, paperwork, customs documents, collection.
It is watched
Silence on a tracker is treated as an event.
The client is told
Before the date moves. Always before.
Delivery is filed
Proof against the job, not in an inbox.
The limits
What this desk will not do
Every department has a written boundary. A service that claims no limits has simply not found its own yet, and you will find it for them.
Where this desk stops
- It does not release goods that have not been paid for. Where that is your rule, it is enforced without exception and only you can waive it.
- It does not accept a liability on your behalf — carrier terms, insured values and special conditions come back to you.
- It is not a customs broker of record where your trade requires one; it prepares and instructs.
Questions
Asked before, answered here
Do you use our carriers or yours?
Yours if you have accounts and rates worth keeping. Ours where it is genuinely cheaper, priced side by side so you can see why.
Who is liable if a consignment is damaged?
The carrier, under their terms — and the desk's job is making sure the claim is actually made, on time, with the evidence, which is where most claims quietly die.
International?
Yes, including customs documentation and duty. Landed cost is quoted as landed cost.
What if the date is going to slip?
The client is told before it slips. This is not negotiable and it is the single behaviour that keeps a late job from becoming a lost client.
Next department
Invoices out, cash in
And finally, getting paid for it.
Which of the seven is costing you the most this month?
That is the one to start with. Tell us and we will tell you plainly whether we are the right shape for it.