Broker – Freight Forwarder

Questions and answers about Broker/Freight Forwarders

  • ANSWERS TO Question on In house brokerage

    QUESTION: My company is looking into bringing brokerage in house. Before we do that, we would like to get some guidance/feedback from the membership on if other companies have brought brokerage in house? If yes, what were some of the advantages of doing this? What were some lessons learned? %%%%%%%%%% ANSWERS:I am assuming that by […]

  • Answers to QUESTION ON IMPORTER VALIDATIONS BY BROKER

    QUESTION: In regards to this proposed ruling 84 FR 40302, where Customs Brokers must verify their clients, is this an official requirement?  Our new broker is asking for our CEO’s government ID and want to make sure this is already a requirement before requesting this from our CEO.  I’d like to include the CFR citation […]

  • Customs Broker Regulation Revisions

    QUESTION: Does anyone in the organization have a “reader’s Digest” version of the proposed revisions to the Customs Broker Regulations (19 CFR Part 111)? From the marketing copy, it appears the following will be affected: •             Changing the licensing process and fees •             National permits and fees replacing district permits •             Revisions to responsible supervision […]

  • Broker Corrections

    QUESTION: We use a large courier for a broker for a large amount of small shipments. In turn, they ask that we submit an excel sheet with our products and corresponding HTS codes for the purpose of clearing shipments on our behalf under their IOR #. However, when I go to audit incoming records, I […]

  • IMPLEMENTING NEW BROKER

    QUESTION: We would like to hear from the members on what the best way is to implement a new customs broker for North America. After an RFP, we have chosen a company and are ready to announce it to all our divisions, who were part of the discussions and meetings. We would like to enforce […]

  • BROKER MANAGEMENT

    QUESTION: What important or key questions should I be asking my customs broker on our monthly update call? Any general and specific questions I should be asking? ========== Answers: # of shipments by mode, duty paid, duty saved, what information was missing (required broker to contact importer), any delays in clearance… I also ask mine […]

  • Customs Broker Record Keeping

    QUESTION: Appreciate any input for educational and clarification sake. When a customs broker is running a completely “Paperless Environment” which includes storing all entry and importer commercial document images on their server. Are there restrictions on where the server resides? Must the server be in the USA? Is a broker compliant by using cloud based […]

  • Public record of customs broker/freight forwarder violations?

    QUESTION: Does U.S. CBP maintain any publicly available data on violations of import regulations that are attributed to the customs broker? Any does BIS or any other agency maintain anything similar on violations of export regulations that are attributed to the export forwarding agent? ========== Answers: CBP No (Would be interested any comment from folks […]

  • Membership Best Practices – Broker / Freight Forwarder RFP Process/Timeframe

    QUESTION: I would like to ask the membership how they manage broker / freight forwarder RFPs.  Is there a best practice regarding the timeframe/interval for reviewing (assuming they are performing well) – every 3 years, 5 years, 10 years, etc.?  How do you identify their partnership differently from other 3rd party suppliers/providers where the business […]

  • CUSTOMS BROKER PERMIT SCENARIO

    QUESTION: I have a customs broker license and have been obtaining a Permit every year. For this year, if I don’t renew my CBP Permit, can I renew or apply for it again next year?   I don’t do any brokerage work for clients nor provide any consulting service involving customs business.   Can I […]

  • POA SERVICE CLAUSES

    QUESTION: I’m going through a review of all open POA’s with our Customs brokers. We do not have service contracts with our brokers, so I wanted to consider adding service expectations into our POA’s. Has anyone done this before or have any guidance? Is it a common practice to add compliance expectations into POA’s? ************ […]

  • BROKER SERVICE IMPROVEMENTS

    QUESTION: I am experiencing really terrible customer service with our broker. I am not sure if it’s a result of our team not knowing any better, becoming lax and accepting bad service or if I have too high expectations.   I’ve considered inviting them in for an overview of our product line but they are […]