Solutions and services

We offer you a wide range of transport movements, customs clearance services and vehicles maintenance services 24/7! We are open during standard office hours, at night, on weekends - Saturday and Sunday and during most bank holidays. We can carry out a simple import customs clearance in Great Britain within as little as 30 minutes.

We work with multiple customs clearance agents across the continental Europe and around the world to offer you the best possible service and worry free shipping for your goods. If you are looking for a good UK based freight forwarder or in the EU we are happy to help with this too. Getting a transport and customs clearance services from one place is the key to a success.

Import clearance UK - if the goods are imported to Great Britain your truck no longer will be able to use the MRN from the EU export declaration to board the ferry or train. An import pre-lodgement for your shipment will be required. The transport company will have to be provided with the import declaration UK number in order to generate the goods movement reference - GMR. From 01.07.2022 all transport companies bringing goods to the UK will have to also submit an entry summary declaration called S&S GB. By using a customs broker UK as us you are getting an extra piece of mind that your shipment will get to you on time.

Import clearance EU - If your goods are exported to the EU from the UK we can help too. We can clear the goods from customs in all Europe. As the exporter is liable for any import duty and import VAT debts it's very important that when the merchandise arrives in a third country like Germany, Spain, France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Poland, Denmark or in any other European country your truck / the transport company stops at the customs office of destination. Our services are not limited to customs clearance UK only. Being a member of a wide network of customs agents in Europe allows us to complete the full process for you in house. Our local customs agency will check the documents, calculate and charge the import duty and VAT. Then the goods have to be presented to the customs officials and if everything is in order the transit movement will be closed and the goods released for free circulation in France, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Bulgaria, Croatia, Austria, Czech Republic, Luxembourgh and in all EU. If this process is not completed with accordance to the customs procedures the UK tax office will demand from you to resolve it and in the worst case scenario you will be charged fines and the outstanding taxes. Please remember that if the importer does not pay the import VAT at the destination you will be liable to pay the UK VAT on the goods and services you have provided to your client in a third country.

Export customs clearance UK - To export goods from the UK to the EU you need to provide a commercial invoice with all required information. It's a quick process to lodge an export declaration and to get it approved by the UK customs. Unfortunately to transport non-Union goods via EU countries to the customs office at the destination the goods must travel under a transit movement procedure. By opening a transit movement you as the supplier agree to pay the UK VAT if the buyer fails to pay the import duty and Vat at the destination in Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Greece, Romania, Germany or wherever you are exporting the goods too. If you do not know the importer well it is advices to charge the importer a deposit which can be returned as soon as the import taxes are paid. The other solution is to use our customs agency in Great Britain to arrange the import clearance at the destination. Our local broker can calculate and charge the import taxes upfront, even before the goods have left the UK.

Export clearance EU - It is very easy to obtain an export declaration for goods coming from the EU to the UK. The transit movement is not required. In most EU countries like Germany, Belgium, France or in the Netherlands the goods do not have to be even presented to the customs officials. The only problem is that most customs brokers in Europe are only open from 8am till 5pm. If you get an urgent, last minute transport order for the next day pallet delivery your truck will have to wait till morning to get the export declaration.

Customs broker UK

To assure a smooth transfer of goods via ferry from Calais to Dover for example our UK customs broker will have to be provided some specific, mandatory information. Below we have provided an transcript of our correspondence with a UK company importing furniture from Poland to the UK.

The documents we would like to get from you to complete the import clearance in Great Britain are:

1. A commercial invoice for the imported goods issued by the importer:
2. A packing list if available
3. An export declaration issued by an agent in the country of export

Ideally the commercial invoice should include:

1. Exporter and importer names, addresses and EORI numbers
2. Date, invoice number
3. Goods’ description
4. Invoice total: value, net weight, number of packages
5. Total figures for each unique commodity code: net weight, value, number of packages and the origin
6. Incoterms / Transport costs if not included in the goods’ value
7. Statement of origin if applicable – “The exporter of the products covered by this document …  (provide exporter EORI number) declares that, except where otherwise clearly indicated, these products are of ....... preferential origin.”
8. If you have any questions regarding the required information please phone our UK customs agency for assistance.

Notes:

1. 8 digits commodity codes are sufficient for the export but for the import clearance in GB 10 digits commodity codes are required
2. The good news is that both commodity codes 94014000 and 94016100 declared on the attached invoice according to the UK Trade Tariff have 0% duty rate which means there will be no duty levied even if there was no statement on origin on the invoice and no REX number. Also the invoices for the previous shipments won’t have to be amended unless there are different commodity codes with a duty rate
3. It would be goods to have a packing list reference number provided on the invoice and vice versa so that both documents are linked
4. There are some import conditions / checks for this commodity codes and just in case it would be good to include the following statements on the invoice - ‘No cat or dog fur’, "Not in TR footnote list", "CITES Permits not required". It’s very rare the UK Customs asks this questions but you never know. Also the use of this statements constitutes a legal declaration that the goods do not require any licences, certificates, are not controlled and are not prohibited. Sufficient evidence must be held in records to demonstrate eligibility for this waivers which must be produced on demand.

Customs agency UK

Below you can see an import clearance procedure step by step. Again this is for the same job described above.

1. Exporter – to generate an invoice and a packing list
2. Exporter – to obtain an export declaration from a local customs agent
3. Exporter – to provide:
   1. export declaration
   2. invoice
   3. packing list
   4. truck plates
   5. EU Port of departure:
   6. UK Port of arrival:
   7. Carrier name: DFDS Seaways, P&O Ferries, Eurotunnel etc ..
   8. C crossing date and time
   9. if possible a contact name / number for the transport company, unless we take care of the transport too.
4. UK Customs agent – to make an import Pre-lodgement
5. UK cusotms agency – to provide import declaration number to the transport company
6. Transport company – to make entry summary declaration and to generate GMR
7. Transport company – has all to arrive at the EU port of departure
8. Transport company – to monitor the GMR customs status on the ferry – if green light the goods can be delivered if red light the driver must report to the customs office, present the goods, invoice, packing list, export declaration, GMR and if required contact the customs agency in the united Kingdom.
9. Transport company delivers the goods
10. UK Customs broker – to email the importer the import clearance entry acceptance with the import VAT figures
11. Importer accounts – to include the import VAT in the next VAT return – the payment method for the import VAT on the import entry will be set to the Postponed VAT Accounting - It means you’ll declare and recover import VAT on the same VAT Return, rather than having to pay it upfront when the goods are imported and recover it later.

Notes:

The entry summary declaration is not required till 01.07.2022 – this is the transport company responsibility. As promised customs clearance Great Britain broker will show the transport company where and how to do it. Unfortunately, unless there will be some changes, to make an entry summary declaration it is required to purchase a compatible software or to employ the services of a Community System Provider – the costs are unknown at the moment but I think it will be around £10 to £15

GMR – it is also the transport company responsibility to generate the GMR. The service is free and available to all European companies. It takes 20 minutes to generate an account on GOV.UK, to obtain a GB EORI number and finally to register with GVMS that allows to create / amend GMR. Again as promised cusotms clearance UK agent will show all transport companies how to do it. If they struggle one of our UK customs brokers will generate the GMR for them for free.

As soon as the commercial invoice is available customs clearance Great Britain agency would like to have it. It will allow us to create an import entry draft. The GMR should be created at least 2 hours before the truck arrives at the EU port of departure (also called customs office of exit - Calais, Dunkirk, Hook of Holland, Dublin etc) but we would not leave this to the last minute.