Health certificate mistakes create huge follow-up costs
Ole Dalgas
Head of Marketing
Even the smallest of mistakes are very costly
The majority of goods reach the recipient without complications, but unfortunately none are safe from typos – even organisations with a no-mistake culture.
Every exporting food company has experienced (or knows from… a friend) when mistakes occur in a health certificate.
It can even be small typos, gross weight/net weight being switched or other tedious mistakes that should be obvious for any detail-oriented person of authority on a busy dock in Osaka, Japan in the evening, where the mistake can occur on a container carrying meat from Denmark.
Virkeligheden er desværre en anden, fordi tolerancen og marginalerne er hårfine – eller rettere ikke-eksisterende. Konsekvensen er, at containeren afvises i tolden, og dér starter problemerne (og taksameteret) for virksomhederne.
This functions differently in reality, as the tolerance and the margins are razor thin – or rather non-existent. Consequentially the container will be denied at customs and that is where the problems (and the taxi meter) start for the organisations.
Why are the follow-up costs so high?
It’s extremely expensive, when a container with foods is beached at customs because of a mistake in a health certificate. The follow-up costs can be confusing, as they concern more than just discarding a batch of goods.
In the following list, we have comprised some examples of specific consequences that sadly occur way too often in the food and ingredients industry:
typical follow-up costs
- There can be fines/costs associated with parking a container in customs until it is collected (money + internal time + administration)
- A new return transport to Denmark must be booked (internal time + administration)
- Payment for container transport to Denmark (money + internal time + administration)
- Establishment and handling of a possible insurance claim – the documentation is an extensive piece of work (internal time + administration)
- Possible disposal of goods that can’t be sold anymore (money + internal time + administration)
- Administration and bookkeeping in relation to returns
- Packing of a new container (money + internal time + administration)
- ‘Damage control’ – the customer that isn’t receiving their goods maybe need to be compensated and credibility needs to be rebuilt (money + internal time + administration)
It’s one thing that the container needs to be returned and its contents must be disposed of, but…
Typically, there is a lot of focus on, what the product costed, but the follow-up costs quickly accumulate.
Even though the shipment is covered by insurance, we know of deductibles around for example DKK 500.000. Among our large customers, it is estimated that it costs between DKK 500.000 – DKK 1.000.000 when things go wrong.
Therefore, not much is needed to create a good business-case. We are convinced that it pays off to digitize and automate export workflows, because reusing data equals a drastic reduction of mistakes.
>>
The customers greatly appreciate that we can correct the mistakes together, so the goods are delivered in time – and go all the way to the recipient”.
The typical mistakes in health certificates
About 40 % of all Danish health certificates are created in the platform. Via our Printservice in Vejen, we look at lots of the physical certificates every day. You can probably recognize some of the most common mistakes we face when we are handling the certificates. Check out the list below.
- Gross-/net weight are switched
- Some fields are not filled in
- Lack of strikethrough
- Lack of loading date
- Lack of correct background documentation
- Lack of signature date
ERP integration gets rid of mistakes
Easy shortcut to reducing mistakes
When you automatically reuse your data, you can rid yourselves of a lot of concerns. The mistakes mentioned above – for example wrong statement of gross weight/net weight – would no longer be a source of mistakes, as it will be transferred directly from your ERP. Integration provides safety, reduces mistakes and time consumption – and provides peace of mind for your employees.
Even though you might think that it requires integration to your ERP and that it therefore becomes a larger IT-project, this is not the case. You can easily start quickly and with few certificates and have both your mistakes and your transport to for example the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration (Fødevarestyrelsen) reduced.
And at some point, if you wish to utilize a full integration to ERP, there are even more benefits to gain on all fronts. You can read more about it here.
Get started on day 1 – without having to involve your IT-department
If a full integration must wait for the time being, there are also possibilities to start now on a smaller scale.
If you are using our product catalogue, which is a sort of ‘lite edition’ of ERP, you are reusing the data that you currently have in your system. This removes input mistakes.
You can also choose to utilise the address catalogue. It provides an easier workday and a better experience, as you avoid looking for, and risking making, input-/copying mistakes. Many Asian adresses can be challenging, so why not reuse already correct data that also accelerates your process?
Concrete benefits by reusing your data via integration
There is a long list of crucial benefits, when you integrate your data with the platform – for example:
- You avoid having to fill out the health certificate manually and thereby reduce the risk of mistakes and save significant amounts of time
- The time that was previously used on inputting information manually can be used on other more important tasks
- You can move way closer to your deadline – for example, you can bring the container number the first time around
- Share your approved documents digitally with your customers and colleagues – then you can save the delivery cost (and avoid having to wait for the mail/the courier)
- Quickly order a new replacement certificate, if things go wrong
- Keep track of the processes and use Contenera as a backup, if things go wrong
- Avoid having physical certificates go missing – keep everything in one place
Replacement certificates can lower the risk of mistakes, but…
Strict regulations make it hard to acquire a replacement certificate
The organisations have an opportunity to get a so-called replacement certificate when mistakes occur. But the rules have become so strict that it is more of an imaginary possibility. It makes it hard for organisations to stop a shipment, even though the mistake is discovered in time.
As a consequence of this, the Danish exporters suffer huge costs in relation to shipment returns, and in the worst case, demands that the shipment contents must be disposed of (in the case of foods).
The tightened regulations have strengthened the interest in digitization and automatisation of the creation of certificates.
The automatisation makes it possible to validate data, secure data consistency between shipping labels and certificates and ensure that all information is filled in accordingly in regard to authorities in both the country of the sender and the recipient.
If you are curious about, how you can automate and integrate your data, you are more than welcome to reach out.
Contenera help exporters of foods with their digital transition (DIX)
Even though we at Contenera are a member of the Danish Veterinary and Food Administrations technical reference group with the biggest exporters, we do not yet know the final demands and specifications regarding transferring of data. We hope to gain more information in the coming months.
At the moment, the organisations have no options to evaluate the scope, and there they cannot allocate ressources for development and API-integration among other things for the DIX-project.
In the coming time, we’re working on:
DIX-integration:
We are planning to create a module that can communicate with and transfer data to DIX. That way you don’t have to manually set up your certificates in DIX, but you can continue to create your certificates in Contenera, like usual. We already have positive opinions from several customers that wish to buy a DIX-upgrade.
The Printservice in Vejen continues:
A transition period of several years is to be expected, where paper certificates will be used along with certificates created in DIX. It is possible that we must print fewer documents, but our Printservice will continue to help customers with print, scan, pickups and more.
Our goal is to help our customers with the digital change, both generally and in relation to DIX. We help by offering a digital platform and services that gather everything in one place. In a transition phase, where you still need to use the current certificates from the Certificate database and the new certificates in DIX, you can gain access to both in the ClearView-platform.
Thereby the transition to the new DIX will hopefully go as smooth as possible – also if the DIX-project will drag out.
You are welcome to contact us, if you have any questions. You can also sign up for our DIX-newsletter down below 
. You will gain first hand knowledge on the DIX-project among other things.
We’ll keep you updated – sign up here
Share article
About the author
Ole has been working with marketing since Denmark won the European Football Championship in 1992. He is a huge fan of digital marketing, behaviour based communication and everything in between.
Ole Dalgas
Head of Marketing
Partake in the many advantages of the platform now
News you might be interested in
No need to print and submit customs documents
No need to print and submit customs documents – save yourself the time and trouble How to reduce waiting time from days to hours with
Mistakes in health certificates
Health certificate mistakes create huge follow-up costs Ole Dalgas Head of Marketing Even the smallest of mistakes are very costly The majority of goods reach
DIX – Danish Veterinary and Food Administration digitizes food certificates
DIX – Get an overview of the Authority’s digitisation project here. We will keep you updated on the DIX project.
Knowledge
Get tips straight in your inbox
Get inspired and find out how you can streamline your export processes and logistics
Reach out – we’re ready to help:
Phone: +45 53 50 35 90 | info@contenera.com
Platform
Get tips straight in your inbox
Get inspired and find out how you can streamline your export processes and logistics
Reach out – we’re ready to help:
Phone: +45 53 50 35 90 | info@contenera.com