Logistics In-House Secondment and Consultancy
The Alliance Group staff secondment service offers U.K. companies the facility of an independent assessment of the modus operandi of the staffing and departmental systems employed in the international movement of their products.
Our international logistics management involves an appraisal of all outsource services for sea and airfreight movements on a global basis and is conducted in a discreet and unobtrusive manner by expert Alliance audit staff. These staff seek to ensure that the optimum arrangements are in place for the carriage of your products both on an import as well as an export basis.
Following this audit a confidential report is made to the client’s export or finance director highlighting any areas of concern and making impartial recommendations as to what course of action should be adopted to remedy any shortcomings that are discovered.
Secondments can be effected either on-site or off-site, for the purposes of discretion and security, (by the “arms length” method) with files data and systems being reviewed in the Alliance local (U.K.) office.
Benefits of ASL-Interface©
24 / 7 coverage especially relevant over vacation time and illness
Full Integration with IT systems
5 decades of longevity and experience
Reduced overheads – Costs clients less than a staff member
Unrivalled experience of all aspects of global business
Insurance cover for any errors and/or omissions
Adjunct of clients office
ASL-FLO© service (letter of credit preparation and presentation services) carried out free of charge
Referrals from existing customers available upon request
Flexibility – unlike a full time member of staff, Alliance is a floating overhead through peaks and troughs, clients will only pay when services are utilised.
No steep learning curve as Alliance already have experience of the client’s business. This saves time and investment in getting up to speed (versus a new recruit).
Expansion and contraction of export business is unaffected by client’s staffing levels.
Free of charge appraisal of current procedures and processes including temporary secondment of staff to your premises if necessary.
Reduced paperwork flow and errors
Case Studies
An Alliance audit established that poor freight purchasing resulted in the client paying excessive prices for FCL (full container load) movements to South Africa. U.K. handling charges were reduced by 21% and seafreight overheads were cut by 45%.
Staff members were found to be under utilised with duplication of workload and attendant inefficiency resulting in low morale and poor customer service. This particular account had minimal export business but was paying for three staff members to handle the same! Alliance suggested retrenchment of two of these staff to the client resulting in savings of £39,000 per annum in salaries and NI contributions, and outsourcing all aspects of the shipping function to Alliance.
Import airfreight charges were recently scrutinised by the Alliance team and were found to be excessive. The shipments were loaded on a deferred basis from the U.S.A. but were being billed to the client at the direct flight rates which were 112% higher than the deferred service being used. Additionally the wrong import tariff headings were being applied to the commodity resulting in even higher rates of duty than were applicable. The rates were revised downwards and HMRC are currently re-classifying the product to a more favourable ad-valorem heading.
