As the days go by since our official withdrawal from the European Union, and our future relationship with the EU and other trading blocks slowly becomes clearer, we want all our customers to rest assured in the knowledge Sussex Transport will continue to provide the high standards of service that we have always provided and can continue to handle all your European consignments and your freight will continue to move.
The UK gave formal consent to the e-CMR protocol in December 2019, which allows National and International transport from and to the United Kingdom to be done with digital consignment notes.
The signing of the e-CMR protocol has been on the agenda for the UK for quite some time, after a successful international pilot project with the e-CMR platform TransFollow, which is the independent platform that works together with the transport and logistics sector. Developed for and by the market, the eCMR platform promotes cooperation between senders, carriers and recipients. With TransFollow being the international market standard, transport and logistics companies boost their efficiency, reliability and in turn their customer satisfaction levels.
With the entire logistics sector constantly moving forward, the digitalisation of the consignment note has been long overdue. It will allow users to increase supply chain visibility with real time insights for all business partners and continuous status updates of the e-CMR, but also significantly reduces the time spent on administration and the archiving of each document, this in turn leads to administrative cost savings and offers further optimisation of the supply chain.
However, UK based companies are not the only ones to profit from the signing; “With the ratification of the e-CMR protocol by Portugal in September, the UK is the 24th country to sign, enlarging the area to use digital consignment notes, adding important players to the potential digital network. International companies, especially from the Netherlands, who are currently seen as front runners on using digital consignment notes, can start on digitising transports with yet another country straight away.”, explains Hans Lip, International Sales Manager at TransFollow.
Domestic and international users will also profit from simplified processes when it comes to border crossing within and outside of the EU. The TransFollow e-CMR can, for example be used as reliable proof on intra-community transport to apply the VAT zero tax rate and other administrative tasks occurring on international transports.
If you have any concerns about your shipments or if you need clarification about how Brexit may affect your transport requirements, then do get in touch on 0800 915 23 23, or email us and we are happy to discuss this with you and how we can work together moving forward.
