DAKOSY Sees Rising Demand for Customs Solutions in E-Commerce

The ongoing boom in e-commerce is palpable for the Hamburg-based software service provider DAKOSY. As a result, the demand for automated customs solutions is increasing in international online trade. Key hubs are the airports Leipzig/Halle and Cologne/Bonn. In Frankfurt, interest in digital customs processing in the land transport sector has arisen due to Brexit.

(Hamburg) Several factors are causing customs processes to come into sharper focus. “There are currently various triggers prompting e-commerce companies to contact us to automate their import processes. These include Brexit, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and the abolition of VAT exemption for EU imports of small consignments as of July 1, 2021,” says DAKOSY board member Dieter Spark.

This development is particularly noticeable at the airports Leipzig/Halle and Cologne/Bonn. At the two significant international e-commerce hubs in Germany, DAKOSY now automates millions of customs processes annually with its software applications.

Large Project Implemented

In the first quarter of 2021, DAKOSY successfully implemented a project for SW Customs Consulting as an independent company of DB Schenker. A new order from a large e-commerce retailer due to Brexit led to an extreme increase in volume at SW Customs. “The import volume of an additional 15,000 shipments daily from England at Cologne/Bonn Airport would not have been manageable with the approximately 100 employees using traditional methods,” summarizes SW Customs Managing Director Martin Makowski the initial situation.

With logistics IT service provider DAKOSY as a partner, the company succeeded in nearly fully automating this process. “Since early January, we have been extracting all customs-relevant information from existing logistics data records in real-time for SW Customs using our software ZODIAK GE, thus triggering the pending customs processes,” explains Lutz Hagen, customs advisor at DAKOSY. This includes the early single customs declaration, the ICS declaration, the summary entry declaration, and the import customs clearance.

This project exemplifies for Spark the trend of digitizing customs processes associated with e-commerce. Due to the volume alone, there is no alternative to automation. A cargo plane typically carries about 20,000 shipments that should ideally transition seamlessly from the aircraft to delivery. “The quality and speed of customs processes determine whether delivery times are met,” Sparks notes from numerous discussions with stakeholders in the transport chain.
DAKOSY also senses further demand for customs solutions in online trade from road transport from Great Britain. After Brexit, automated processes are in demand for quick processing.

Data Structure and Volume are Crucial

When selecting software, transport and logistics companies should pay attention to the structure and quality of their data as well as the volume of shipments, advises Spark. A SaaS application (Software-as-a-Service) with an electronic interface is suitable for large volumes with consistently stable data records that can be directly transferred from in-house systems like SAP. In contrast, those working with Excel or CSV files, or having frequently changing data or customer structures, need flexibility in creating customs documents in addition to standardization.

“For this need, we recently developed a web-based, platform-independent conversion tool with Drag & Map Customs,” reports Spark. The tool can be deployed immediately without programming or extensive training efforts. In conjunction with the customs software ZODIAK GE, productivity increases of 20 to 25 percent can be achieved quickly. Another long-established conversion solution is the Box interface, where data flows directly from the upstream system via the BOX (Business Objects Exchange) into ZODIAK GE.

Photo: © Flughafen Leipzig/Halle GmbH, Kathrin Falke