Setting Up A Compliance Ship-to-Home Model

The Need for A New Model
Since the onset of the global pandemic, many companies have provided their employees the opportunity to work remotely to promote safety. Working from home presents a few challenges, with one of the biggest being how to handle shipments to/from at-home personnel. This process becomes increasingly challenging for international shipments, where any delays can have far-reaching operational and compliance implications.

Let’s consider the engineer who needs to receive some samples or a prototype. In the past, the sample would have been shipped via the normal process and delivered to the engineer in their office. Today the engineer is working from home. The package needs to be shipped directly to their home address allowing the engineer to work while maintaining the safety protocols of social distancing. To help solve this problem, many companies have implemented a new ship-to-home model. This model allows companies to operate within this new paradigm by addressing new challenges and minimizing new risks in logistics and compliance.

There are increases in potential risks for mis-deliveries, delays, and incorrectly imported items with the ship-to-home model. A timely and compliant customs entry starts with the broker being able to correctly identify the correct Importer of Record (IOR). This will determine how an import should be handled. Any confusion about who the IOR is will lead to delivery delays, thus keeping our engineer from being productive while working from home.

To help minimize these risks, all parties involved (shipper, carrier, broker, recipient) must strictly follow client-specific rules addressing the differences between standard shipments and ship-to-home items.

Best Practices

There are best practices to follow that can help minimize the risks. Incorporating the below items to a ship-to-home SOP will increase the likelihood of successful and compliant delivery.

1. Documentation requirements need to be put in place to properly identify when the ship-to-home process should be followed. This will ensure that carriers and brokers treat the shipments accordingly and trigger the correct procedures.
2. Only specific personnel should be authorized to receive at-home deliveries.
   • The authorization and control of who can receive shipments will ensure that potentially expensive, confidential, or critical items aren’t misdelivered.
   • Authorized recipients must acknowledge their responsibility in maintaining possession of any sensitive or confidential items.
   • Recipients will authorize that their Personally Identifiable Information (PII), such as their name and address, can be used.
   • Personnel must get real-time alerts to their cellphone to ensure on-time delivery.
   • The recipient must get a proof of delivery with a signature and must take a picture of the delivered item.
3. Only authorized shippers can ship to an at-home-delivery location. This will help ensure that documentation is filled out correctly and that correct carrier are used, limiting the risk of a misdelivered, improperly imported, or delayed shipments.
   • Any shipments from unapproved third parties will need to go to a central company location first and be reshipped from the company location to the recipient’s home.
4. Any exports coming from a shipper’s home must be sent to a central company location, where they will be repacked, have documentation created, and shipped.
   • No exports should come directly from home addresses.
5. Companies will also need to establish re-route processes with carriers so that they can re-route misshipped items.
   • Items from unapproved shippers or to unapproved recipients may require re-routing to a company location, where they can be forwarded via domestic carrier or courier to the correct place.
6. Companies should conduct audits verifying processes are being followed by all parties, including shippers, carriers, brokers, and recipients, to ensure compliance. This audit will identify any potential gaps that may increase risk. The main points of focus are:
   • Shipper and recipient are authorized to use the ship to home process.
   • Correct account numbers are used
   • Correct packaging and labeling requirements on all shipments
   • Goods are imported correctly via the broker.
   • Proof of delivery is obtained.

How Allyn Can Help

The ship-to-home model is becoming more relevant and preferred by businesses to accommodate the current situation. However, if not handled properly, the benefits can quickly turn into shortcomings. To ensure success, it is of the utmost importance that companies assess the risks and develop robust SOPs for carriers, brokers, and internal personnel to follow. At Allyn, we have the personnel, systems, and best practices to help guide clients through this tricky setup. Allyn can work with your personnel, logistics service providers, brokers, and shippers to ensure that a process is implemented in a timely fashion. If your company could benefit from a controlled and efficient ship-to-home model, please contact us at sales@allynint.com.

Contributor: Barbora Jelinkova

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About Allyn International

Allyn International is dedicated to providing high quality, customer centric services and solutions for the global marketplace. Allyn's core products include transportation management, logistics sourcing, freight forwarding, supply chain consulting, tax management and global trade compliance. Allyn clients range from small local businesses to Fortune 500 firms. Allyn conducts business in more than 20 languages and has extensive experience in both developed and emerging markets. Highly trained experts are positioned throughout North America, Europe and Asia and Allyn regional headquarters are strategically located in Fort Myers FL USA, Shanghai P.R. CHINA and Prague, CZECH REPUBLIC. For more information, log on to www.allynintl.com