How Alpen Pharma cut border paperwork delays from days to hours

Company Overview

Alpen Pharma moves around 200 cross border loads a month. Customs documentation was assembled per load from email attachments, and a missing document meant the vehicle waited at the border.

Challenge

• Documents came from four parties by email and were assembled manually per load
• Around 15 loads a month were held at the border for missing or incorrect paperwork
• Each held load cost a driver day plus a late delivery, and sometimes a customer penalty
• Nobody could confirm a load was document complete before it departed

Solution

• All parties upload documents against the shipment reference in FerroTrack, so there is one place to look
• A load cannot be marked ready to depart until its document set is complete
• Missing documents are chased automatically from the responsible party 24 hours before departure
• Drivers carry the document set on their phone, which resolved most gate queries on the spot

Results

• Loads held at the border fell from about 15 a month to under two
• Average paperwork related delay fell from two days to around two hours
• Roughly 28,000 euros a year of driver waiting time was recovered
• Invoicing moved forward by two days on average, because delivery confirmation arrives sooner

Customer Testimonial

"The documents were never really missing, they were just somewhere nobody was looking. Putting them in one place against the shipment was not clever technology, it was simply the thing nobody had done. Fifteen held loads a month down to two speaks for itself."

Lena Hoffmann, Operations Manager, Alpen Pharma

Key Benefits

• All customs documents held against the shipment
• Departure blocked until the document set is complete
• Automatic chasing of the responsible party
• Drivers carry the document set on their phone

Ferro & Sons Logistics put every customs document in one place for Alpen Pharma, and turned two day border delays into two hour ones.