You have visualised your market, your customers, your sales and your growth. The planning is on paper and every item has been listed. You have appointed the personnel responsible for the shows and outlined their tasks. Your technology roadshow is to kickstart in Johannesburg and immediately after that comes the show in Kenya and you have decided for the capital. Your papers are ready and sorted in files.
What do you need?
First and foremost you need to know the following:
Political stability of the country of destination?
Time factors correctly calculated?
Pick up vehicles: what is your requirement
What packaging is needed?
Insurance cover for equipment?
Customs documents?
Logistics at the venue
Power
Re-import
Political stability of the country of destination?
Political instability or signs of that need to be taken seriously. Cancelling the shows after all the planning has been done might prove to be expensive. Uprisings do not happen overnight. There will be telltale signs of that going to happen.
Time factors correctly calculated?
Planning on paper is easy. Reality can surprise. Leave nothing to chance. The customs papers need to be prepared, checked and corrected. The consignment can only be picked up after your customs papers are finalised. You need to calculate the time for preparing correct documents. Mistakes in customs documents can be fatal. Transportation in the country of destination may not be as easy as in your home country. The right equipment may not be available on time, e.g. tail gate lorries are not available in Kenya, at least they were not available in the past. Re-export processing after the exhibition may take time. The airline will need time to plan its logistics.
Pick up vehicles: what is your requirement
Do you have a loading ramp for your equipment? This will determine what vehicle you will need for the pick up. If you do not have a loading ramp, you may need either to get one (which may prove expensive) or organise vehicles with a tail gate to help with the loading
The lorry company needs time to organise vehicles. If articulated lorries are required, the transportation company may need to order them in advance. Last minute bookings will prove expensive and your schedule will be under strain. If you are ordering articulated lorries, have you thought about the approach roads? Can the vehicles drive in to your complex? Are such lorries allowed to ply on those roads?
What packaging is needed?
Do NOT try to save you money here. Your expensive equipment will suffer damage if cheap packaging is used. Remember to have detailed list of what items are in which cartons, crates, pallets or boxes. Number the boxes. Try not to use plastic pallets, if you care for the environment. If you are using wood, be very clear, you need IPPC certified packaging materials and the IPPC logo must be visible clearly. This is no simple matter. Your freight can get held up and flown back to the airport of departure. You will need to foot the bill.
You may use non-wood packaging to be on the safe side. Think about possible repairs. Do not forget number locks. Keys can get lost. Numbers can always be passed on. Customs authorities have the right to demand the opening of boxes or crates or for that matter any material for the purpose of inspection.
Insurance cover for equipment?
Damage can happen in transit. It is human to make mistakes and airfreight operators are not always careless. They are under enormous stress and need to be fast. Even if you get insurance cover, do not forget to arrange for replacements and substitutes.
Customs documents?
Talk to your airfreight service provider, to the chamber of commerce and other people competent to answer your queries. You do not want to get your freight held up at customs. You can think about using an ATA Carnet, but before you go about the process, find out if the country of destination accepts that document. Not all the countries are party to the ATA Carnet Contract. If you are using road transport, you need to think about transit sheets in your Carnet set. They cannot be added en route. NEVER damage the metal seal attached to the carnet. You are going repent it. Always have excellent coloured copies of all your documents on hand. Keep electronics copies that can be accessed via a website and printed off.
Logistics at the venue
Is your exhibition location easily accessible? Venues do not always have storage possibilities. That means the delivery of your equipment will need to be planned around this. If there is a loading ramp, an articulated lorry is good. If a ramp is not available, a lorry with tail gate will be needed. Even fork lifts may be required. Have super heavy equipment? Think about heavy-duty fork lifts. Pallet jacks are needed to move your equipment into the exhibition hall. The floors may be marble or highly polished mosaic. Thought about padding for the floor?
Power
The small items can prove to be extremely important. Power adapters are small but if you cannot connect your equipment because of having no adapters, it can be frustrating and expensive, too. Think about the voltage your equipment need. Power surge arrester! Your show can be ruined if a power surge occurs. Thought about power failure? Solutions?
Re-import
Finally, you need to get your freight back home. Check all your papers. Have your freight forwarder prepare his file for customs entry. He should have kept all the papers when your freight was exported. Give him advance notice of arrival. Your freight forwarder at the airport of departure should provide you the details of the way bills. Check with your freight forwarder at home if he has received what is called the “pre-alert” of the freight. That will include the air way bills and other customs papers.
Confused?
Is your head spinning? Make it easy, get in touch and you will have everything done for you. I am a one stop shop.