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CLIENT STORIES Anixter's Translucent Border When Anixter decided to automate Customs clearance, "The whole concept was to try to make the border disappear," says Glenn Gammage, Manager of Transportation and Customs. "Of course, you can't really do that, but we call it a translucent border now, because we can cross it very easily." Headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Anixter Canada is part of Chicago-based Anixter International Inc., a multinational distributor of cable and networking products for voice, video, and data communications, as well as industrial cable and wire. As a value-added distributor, notes Gammage, Anixter's competitive advantage comes in "delivering products to customers where ever they want it, when ever they want it, as soon as they want it. Now we can have shipments cleared within an hour, whereas with a broker, it could take from four hours to a day." Anixter first went "live" with Customs to submit its import documentation. The next step was electronic release. Says Gammage, "We were the largest private company doing electronic releases for the first few months. By June, it was all running smoothly." Anixter had achieved the translucent border. Electronic release was quicker and cheaper. "We were still paying a broker for an RMD or release on minimum documentation." Says Gammage "That costs us about $8 a shipment which can add up to a lot of money." Management was so pleased with the results that presentations are being given in other parts of then Anixter empire on how to automate Customs – minimize duty, plus clear shipments quicker, easier, and cheaper. One of the reasons it takes longer to clear Customs with a broker, says Gammage, is the time it takes "to get the information flowing." The importer can get "trapped between the broker and carrier, each one saying the other has the paperwork." That process is eliminated, he says, when Customs is brought in-house. And, he says, compared to paying an outside broker, "We now have a much more intelligent workforce." |
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