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WWW.IELA.ORGCUSTOMS NEWS“CATS & CUSTOMS”‘’I am very fond of cats. We haveone and have had others overthe years.But, unfortunately due tothem we had a very badexperience with one of ourshipments to the Netherlands inthe 90's.We had a quite large shipmentconsolidated into a 40ft oceancontainer with, among otherthings, a shipment of cat food!Of course the cat food was not atime sensitive shipment but ourtrade show shipment was verymuch time sensitive. The cat foodwas NOT our cargo by the way,the consolidator company mixedvarious goods together and wewere not even aware of it.In any case, the entireshipment was held in Rotterdamover the week-end because ofthis mixture of a consolidationand 'faulty paperwork'. Ourtrade fair shipment wasimpounded because of cat food.Netherlands customs had tohave a veterinarian come to theport on Monday (the day beforethe fair) and check out if thisfoodshipment was OK; this foodshipment that tied everythingelse in the container!WATCH YOUR OCEANCONSOLIDATORS!It worked out but our tradefair shipment was a day late tothe fair------the clients were quiteupset. I told them that, believe itor not, ultimately cats were theproblem---believe it or not. Eventhough he was upset that hisshipment was a day late; hesmiled and said that he hadTHREE cats at home.What a great, unbelievablebut true excuse to satisfy aclient!Now everytime we feed ourcat; cat food=customs problems!If there is a lesson to belearned: how do we watch forthat and prohibit that procedureand potential problem with theocean consolidators?’’John Harrison of UniGroupWorldwide, Inc., U.S.A.POWER OFATTORNEY INBULGARIAFor every import or export(this does not count for ATAcarnet ) we need power ofattorney to obtain EORInumber on behalf ofCustomer-apart of Power ofAttorney for Customsclearance that has alwaysbeen in force. The EORInumber then is valid for allfuture imports or exports forthe same Customer /Company.Ludmil RANGELOVOrbit Ltd. – BULGARIATHE IMPORTANCE OF BEING … ON FACEBOOK!We would like to tell you astory that you may think is,precisely, just a story but - ohboy - I can guarantee you this isno ordinary story.This is the story of threepallets that started in anexhibition in Deauville, France,moved on to another one inParis and finally landed in theEGAST 2010 in Strasbourg afteran odyssey worth of any wellknownfiction writer.The Exhibitions Dept ofTransnatur Barcelona, incollaboration with our agent inFrance, ESI (Expo ServiceInternational) were to deliverthree pallets that were comingfrom the Fair in Paris to the onein Strasbourg for our clientSOSA INGREDIENTS. TheEGAST Fair was due to beginon 14 March Sunday, so thegoods were to be delivered on12 March Friday.Our client, already inStrasbourg, who was recoveringfrom a surgical operation onlythe week before, phoned AxelLeuret and Albert Marcos(Exhibition Dept at Transnatur)on Saturday morning to say thatthe merchandise was nowhereto be seen.Axel, Albert and Elisabeth,once recovered from the initialshock, set themselves off to afrantic work in order to find outwhere the three pallets mighthave gone. Mr EmmanuelPitchelu, General Manager ofESI, offered to cooperatepersonally in this impossiblemission to find the lostmerchandise. First attempt wasobviously to phone thetransport companysubcontracted by ESI to deliverthe merchandise, but don’tforget that it was Saturday, thatthe company was closed, andmobile phones were notreachable either.Axel and Albert startedGoogling like mad in order tofind any connection that maylead them to someone at thislocal transport company inFrance… and FACEBOOK cameto life! A list of eighteen or sonames was displayed belongingto an association of old driverswhose connection was thetransport company in question.Mr Pitchelu asked FranceTelecom to provide all thephone numbers for thesepeople, whom he set to phoneone by one in the hope thatone of them might know howto get in touch with thecompany. Around 5pm, hefinally succeeded in talking to aretired driver who happens toknow the name of the securityguard of the warehouse usedby the transport company.You’ll be relieved to know thatwe were now only a few phonecalls away from gettingsomeone to open thewarehouse for us on a Saturdayevening.The guard leaded us to theManager of the warehouse whothen told us that the goodswere certainly in thewarehouse; they were neverdelivered to the stand becausewhen the driver arrived at theExhibition venue and saw thelong queue of trucks waiting tobe appointed a bay todownload, he decided of hisown accord to u-turn anddeliver on...Monday,completely unaware of theimportance of delivering for theday he had been instructed todo so.Shakespeare said it himselfmuch before us: ‘All’s well thatends well…’ And so at 8pm thewarehouse was finally openedfor us to access themerchandise and organise anexpress transport that woulddeliver the merchandise safeand sound to our client’s standat 11 o’clock at night thatSaturday.On Sunday morning, both theclient and the stand were readyto greet visitors, the lattertotally unaware of the ordealbehind it all.Angels Ariño Cussa ofTransnatur, S.A., SpainIELA REPORT 667