Rail service market updates | December 2021

DACHSER Food Logistics - a reliable partner in the Corona crisis

The corona pandemic has posed and continues to pose major challenges for DACHSER Food Logistics. During the shutdown in March, the company succeeded in maintaining its ability to deliver without interruption, thus making an important contribution to supplying the population.

During this challenging period, the system relevance was thus demonstrated without any restrictions for the suppliers. The weeks of March were characterized by extreme daily fluctuations and peaks in volume, which DACHSER Food Logistics normally only experiences before Christmas: kilometre-long traffic jams at border crossings, long waiting times at retail warehouses and drastic restrictions for drivers on suppliers' premises or when unloading at the recipient addresses. The extreme slump in the catering and wholesale sales channels has also led to a considerable under-utilisation of the small vehicle fleet.

Positive customer feedback motivates

The Business Line has received letters of thanks or verbal praise from many customers for its reliability during these challenging times. "We are very pleased and extremely proud of this, because such gestures testify to a high level of appreciation and customer satisfaction," says Alfred Miller, Managing Director DACHSER Food Logistics. "They also encourage us not to slacken our commitment. We will continue to offer our customers the best possible service in future and help them to revitalize their distribution channels".

During the dry spell of the past few weeks, DACHSER Food Logistics has kept its fleet capacities fully operational for the post-Corona period. Alfred Miller: "We are prepared and look forward to continuing to work in partnership with our customers".

Hard Brexit: Important measures beforehand

Even though there are some movements in the negotiations between EU and UK, still the “No deal” Brexit at the October 31st, 2019 cannot be excluded.

The consequences of a withdrawal without a deal on 31st October, especially for the movement of goods to and from the UK, are well known. First and foremost, longer waiting times would be expected due to border controls and customs clearance of all goods in accordance with WTO rules.

DACHSER will take appropriate measures to ensure that all goods arriving/leaving the UK after 23.00 GMT (00.00 CET) on 31st October are cleared and taxed accordingly.

With this letter we would like to summarize again the most important points and measures to keep the effects and delays in delivery for our customers as low as possible.

In case of Hard Brexit, the following information and documents must be available for customs clearance before the goods are collected:

• Consignment note
• Commercial invoice / pro forma invoice
• Packing list / delivery note
• Export accompanying document (can be issued by us if necessary)
• Preference documents and other product-specific documents, only if possible and required

Please make sure that these documents contain the following information: Sender with EORI number, recipient with contact details, importer if different to recipient with contact details, sequential invoice number, Incoterms, number and type of packages, description of goods, country of origin, Taric code, value of goods, currency, gross/net weight.

Please pay attention to a high data quality of the information - the documents must fit definitely to the respective physical transmission.

If the documents are made available to us in electronic form, they should correspond to a resolution of 300dpi if possible.

In addition, we need the contact person for customs including the contact details of your consignee/importer (e-mail address) so that we can contact them in order to obtain the necessary customs power of attorney. We need these in order to be able to carry out the necessary customs clearance. Without the power of attorney we can not do the customs clearance.

Please do also note, that we also will need more detailed shipment information like number and type of packages, description of goods, value of the goods, if you have got shipments to Ireland via UK territory, as we will have to issue a transit procedure through UK. For the beginning we also recommend that you add a T2L to those shipments as we are not yet sure, if Ireland customs will accept T2 as a proof for goods in free circulation of EU after transit via UK. 

Within our eLogistics application the possible incoterms will be changed due to the customs. At the beginning only FCA/EXW or DAP are possible in eLogisitcs in order to ensure the process. Also the EDI information regarding the incoterms have to be adapted, the responsible person from your branch will contact you in order to align the necessary changes.

We ask for your understanding and cooperation so that DACHSER can make your flow of goods as efficient and trouble-free as possible in this exceptional case of hard Brexit.

The most important measures for preparation we have stated additionally in our Brexit checklist.

Please do not hesitate to contact your DACHSER branch if you have any further questions.