Introducing BLUE move …. ������������������� Introduction BLUEmove Interna- OUR GOAL: Our Goal tional Relocation is a To support and facili- Move Management Full Service, Independ- tate the programs that ent, Freight Manage- For Our Client…. benefit the less fortu- ment company head- nate. 10 Examples quartered in the Wash- References ington, D.C. metropoli- We handle the cargo tan area. With many that you need— years of experience personal effects, serving this internation- BLUEmove household goods, do- al community, we have nations, gifts-in-kind, International built a strong reputation etc. Relocation with Private, Diplomat- ic, and Corporate, and We will manage and NGO clients. oversee the details of 10440 Little Patuxent every shipment to en- Parkway, Suites 300 As a full service provid- sure that everything is Columbia, MD 21044 done to satisfaction, er, we take care of all Tel: 301-570-3306 and within budget. details of the moving Fax: 301-576-5308 and shipping process: www.blue-move.com This allows your or- —Door-to-Door— ganization and employ- —Quickly— ees to focus on their FMC# 020452F strategic goals and —Professionally— business objectives, rather than being con- Across the cerned with shipping “Blue” ocean or issues. “Blue” sky— “Team Blue” staff han- For Our Clients…. dle all aspects required for a safe and secure Single source logistical move— solution for household goods, personal ef- fects, and all your pro- ject cargo needs. Move Management Various commodities (household/personal effects, donated goods, project cargo, ..…. is a delicate balance Decisions made for one and more!) between the needs and transferee or shipment may BLUEmove provides a expectations of relocat- not necessarily apply to an- customized move man- ing transferees versus other. We manage every Customized transporta- agement services . the policy guidelines and detail to meet the needs and tion solution for quali- requirements of the em- expectations of all parties! . ty service at cost- ployers. effective pricing.
P!"# 2 1) Dedicated Staff…. 2) Asking the right question…… We will describe circumstances The primary contact will be We were recently handling a shipment to where we have come up against Jamaica for a returning Jamaican Citizen. Timothy Trout . Tim has been obstacles or controversy, and how In order to avoid customs duties and tax- handling shipments of household/ we remedied these issues, most of es, the shipper had to live outside of Ja- personal effects and project cargo which are behind the scenes, as the maica for 3 years. Unfortunately, he was for corporations, USAID contrac- moving and shipping process re- moving back after only 2 years and 8 tors, NGOs, Non-Profit Organiza- quires many humans, from the month. In examining the shipping needs tions, Universities, Schools, packing and loading crews at the and the import laws, we were able to mini- Churches, and various religious residence, the shipping clerk at the mize the duties and applicable taxes. For organization for over 20 years. As steamship line, to the customs example, we found that anyone can import a member of TEAM BLUE , it is our agent at the destination port. goods duty free as long as the value is goal to provide a unique service to less than US$500. So for the AIR ship- Everyone must fulfill their responsi- remote locations of the world, effi- ment, even though the employee declared bility; human error is a consideration ciently and cost-effectively. the value at over $1000, we were able to we anticipate! . catch this in time to provide a customs declaration for less than $500 based on the depreciated customs value, so no cus- 3) Cross Checking status details….. toms duties and taxes were applied. It is common for shipments by AIR We recently had an AIR shipment or SEA to be held up at a transship- US to India that was delayed. The 4) Picking up the phone…. ment point. Some delay minor de- shipment was being routed by the lays are acceptable, but more than air cargo carrier through China. Delays in shipping are inevitable, especially this, can often mean bigger issues. The problem was that it was Chi- when it comes to shipping to Africa, and Shipments are monitored as often as nese New Year, and the country many of the difficult to reach locations of the necessary to ensure that shipments was shut down for over a week. world. In fact, in addition to our network of are on target for their scheduled Pressing the air carrier, we found agents, we also have a reference of contact transshipments and arrival to desti- an option through Bahrain to get numbers for various ports and handling nation. AIR freight is checked every the freight to India on time. agents worldwide that we utilize when needed 1-2 days. Sea Freight is commonly to locate shipments in route. There was a checked weekly while in transit. personal effects shipment going from Kazakh- stan to Azerbaijan, and was being held up in customs at the border. After 48 hours of 5) Worldwide Network…. mixed messages and confusion, we called the origin agent in Kazakhstan and the desti- A shipment from the US to Roma- The port of Varna, Bulgaria is only nation agent in Azerbaijan. The required doc- nia, was booked with the steamship about 150 km from the port of Con- umentation was needed from the shipper, but line including 2 x 40’ containers of stanta. We checked with several neither office could reach the shipper, as they household goods two(2) autos from agents, and found one company were traveling back to the US. We contacted port Boston to port Constanta, Ro- that was capable of importing the shipper and sorted out the clearance as mania. The shipment was packed goods into Romania via Bulgaria. quickly as possible without further delay. and loaded directly into the contain- The process required a transit in- ers, and returned to the port for bond through Bulgaria, but the export clearance and loading onto agent was able to achieve this with- 6) Persistence… the vessel. After the containers in our budget and surprisingly fast were already at the port, the steam- up to Bucharest. In the end, the While we can proudly say we have never ship line informed us that they do steamship line paid the difference lost a shipment, we have had some very not ship household goods and for the inland handling. trying situations. We had a small SEA POVs to Romania. After a few end, the steamship line paid the freight shipment to Malawi that took nearly minutes of vulgar phrases, we start- difference for the inland handling. 6 months of tracing and tracing on a daily ed to look into options around this basis. In route via South Africa, one of the challenge. Although the shipment truckers tried to move the shipment across was slightly delayed, we found an the border unmanifested. The shipment alternative routing to reach Bucha- was held up in Livingstone for nearly 3 rest. weeks. The local agent had to pay penal (continued)
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