About Waberer’s
Waberer’s International is one of Europe’s largest transportation, freight forwarding and logistics specialists and market leaders in Hungary (where they have 320,000 sq. metres of storage space alone). They offer full-service options, including storage, warehouse and inhouse logistics, distribution and have over 2,800 trailers, with an average of just two years old.
Whilst they have a broad portfolio of groupage customers, full truckloads are the majority of their business. Customers include Automotive, FMCG, Packaging and general industrial (both large and small).
Goods are moved via road within the European Union and also the Middle East for some customers.
In 2019, Waberer’s trucks covered 450 million kilometres, quite a fantastic figure. Year on Year turnover growth was 18.1% in the final quarter of 2022.
The challenge
Waberer’s were very aware that when Brexit created a requirement for customs clearance, this would significantly strain existing customs agents’ capacity, especially as they were a large, fast-growing business.
Before Brexit, Waberer’s customers had generally handled declarations themselves when these might be required. The advent of Brexit meant that there was a requirement for Waberer’s to set up an internal department to process declarations on the customer’s behalf.
Why choose ChannelPorts?
Waberer’s were looking for a system that would be simpler and faster than sending emails to a network of Custom Agents in the UK which was their initial solution. They often found these agents hard to communicate with and, on occasion could wait for days to get a response, holding up goods and deliveries.
Why CustomsPro?
The main attractions of CustomsPro were the simplicity of the system, removing the need for previous customs experience, and the speed with which clearance information could be submitted and clearance documents received back.
When ChannelPorts quoted that an Export Clearance took 10 minutes and an Export Clearance with Transit Documents took 15 minutes, Waberer’s were amazed.
“We were staring at the ceiling. We were asking ourselves,” said Réka Kocsis (Groupage & Customs brokerage Team Leader), “It’s possible!”
Plan of action
Implementing CustomsPro had few challenges, though import processes proved harder as they required more customer cooperation about shipment information. Although changes to the UK government systems have provided the odd frustration, Waberer’s have appreciated the ability of the ChannelPorts support team to manage these adjustments and respond quickly to any issues that have arisen during a time of change.
Results
Today, Waberer’s have three user accounts on CustomsPro, although only two are used daily, and typically Waberer’s will process 15-20 declarations daily, although this continues to grow as Waberer’s’ business expands.
The benefits to Waberer’s
The main benefits to Waberer’s have been the speed of processes, backed by the 24/7/365 support from a team of Customs Experts. Waberer’s also appreciate that CustomsPro is highly cost-effective too.
“CustomsPro gives us fast processes, and ChannelPorts gives us good cooperation,” summarised Réka “, both at a market-leading price, supporting our continued expansion and making us different from our competitors.”