Hobfolk
Department 08 · Logistics

Booked, tracked,
and chased.

The part of a job that is entirely unglamorous and entirely capable of undoing the other ninety per cent: getting the thing there, on the day, without a customs surprise.

Start a conversationSee the whole crew
You go home. It doesn't.Every promise gets a row and a due dateAnswered the same day, not the next working dayA drawing before the quoteUnverifiable is never a passA desk per department, one address eachNothing is sent that a human cannot read backThe folder exists before you price itYou go home. It doesn't.Every promise gets a row and a due dateAnswered the same day, not the next working dayA drawing before the quoteUnverifiable is never a passA desk per department, one address eachNothing is sent that a human cannot read backThe folder exists before you price it
The case for it

Logistics & dispatch

Nobody notices logistics until it is the only thing anyone can talk about.

A consignment that has not scanned for a day is not yet a problem. It becomes one on the morning of the install, when it is too late to do anything except apologise.

This desk watches the gap. It books the movement, records what was promised, notices when the tracking stops, opens the carrier case, and — the part that protects the relationship — tells the client before the date slips rather than after.

Moving something that will not move on its own
Moving something that will not move on its own
The boardroom

“Paperwork with wheels”

Ian Brennan · Head of Trade & Logistics · 0:58

Freight is paperwork with wheels underneath — the carnet stamp, two clocks on one box, one centimetre over the container door.

Captions on · the sound is worth it

What the desk does

Six things, every day, without being asked

Take the whole desk or one line of it. Everything below is included in the department retainer. None of it is an extra.
01

Dispatch booked

Right carrier for the shape and the deadline, priced against alternatives, booked, labelled, and the paperwork produced.
02

Customs and duty

Commodity codes, commercial invoices, origin, and a landed cost that includes the duty rather than discovering it at the border. Delivered-duty-paid where that is what was quoted.
03

Tracking that is actually watched

Not a tracking number pasted into an email. A consignment that stops moving raises a case while there is still time to do something about it.
04

Proof of delivery, filed

Against the job, where the job lives. The evidence exists on the day you need it in a dispute, which is never the day of the delivery.
05

Install and crew logistics

Access, timings, plant, welfare, and who is holding the keys. The information the crew needs in the format they will read on a phone at seven in the morning.
06

A second opinion before it is booked

Anything unusual — dimensions near a limit, a difficult destination, an expensive option — is reviewed before it is committed, not audited afterwards.
Off the bench

What travels with the goods

Real dispatch paperwork from live jobs, addresses and references redacted. Written for the person opening the crate, not for a filing cabinet.

A delivery note that survives the loading bay

Item and dimensions on every line, the invoice it settles, the drawing revision it was made to, and a handling warning for unfinished timber — so the person opening the crate knows what they are holding.

Dispatched, tracked, and told before it lands

The tracking number is on the note, not in an email nobody kept. The line underneath says how to look after the piece — it left us unfinished and it needs to reach the gilder that way.

On the record

This desk, already at work

The real cases this desk has been through, the guide to its most-asked-for document, and anything you can try before you talk to anyone.
Case study

The first live label, 45 minutes

Four undocumented traps in one shipping platform, found live

Read the caseFree tool

Ask the logistics desk

Put a real shipping problem to the desk in plain language and get a written, cited answer by email the next morning.

Try it, free
Depth

What this desk knows

Freight is where confident-sounding software gets expensive. These are the things the desk knows without being asked, because getting any one of them wrong costs money at the border rather than in a report.

Terms of sale

  • Incoterms 2020 applied properly — DAP as the sane parcel default, and DDP only on a deliberate decision, because DDP puts the destination duty and import VAT on you and it is routinely agreed by accident.
  • The term stated on the commercial invoice, on the quotation and at checkout — the same term in all three places.
  • EXW quoted only where the buyer has a forwarder; it looks cheap on a quote and loses the export evidence you need for zero-rating.

Customs and duty

  • EORI on every outbound movement; CN22 or CN23 with a commercial invoice.
  • Commodity codes verified against the HMRC Trade Tariff, not guessed and not copied from last time — the code drives the duty rate, and the wrong one is a customs debt that surfaces at audit.
  • Descriptions written to what the thing is, in plain terms. “Wooden parts” is how a consignment gets held.
  • Preference and origin claimed only where the rules of origin support it.
  • Returned Goods Relief and inward processing used where they apply, instead of paying duty twice on something that came back for rework.

Timber and packaging

  • FSC and PEFC chain-of-custody — what the certificate covers, what it does not, and why a supplier's certificate is not automatically your claim.
  • EUDR due-diligence statements for timber entering the EU.
  • ISPM 15 — solid wood packaging heat-treated and stamped. An unmarked pallet is a common reason a perfectly good consignment is refused entry.

The unglamorous half

  • Volumetric weight at the carrier's own divisor (commonly 5000 cm³/kg), measured rather than estimated, because oversize surcharges are applied afterwards and never quoted.
  • Insured value set to replacement cost, not invoice value.
  • Carrier claim windows watched — most are days, not months, and most claims die of lateness rather than merit.
  • Proof of delivery filed against the job, on the day, because the day you need it is eighteen months later in a dispute.

None of this is exotic. It is simply the list that a good shipping manager carries in their head after twenty years — written down, and applied to every consignment rather than the ones somebody had time to think about.

The run of it

How a job moves through

  1. It is ready

    Dimensions, weight, packaging and the real dispatch date.

  2. Options are priced

    More than one carrier, with the trade-off stated.

  3. It is booked

    Labels, paperwork, customs documents, collection.

  4. It is watched

    Silence on a tracker is treated as an event.

  5. The client is told

    Before the date moves. Always before.

  6. Delivery is filed

    Proof against the job, not in an inbox.

The limits

What this desk will not do

Every department has a written boundary. A service that claims no limits has simply not found its own yet, and you will find it for them.

Where this desk stops

  • It does not release goods that have not been paid for. Where that is your rule, it is enforced without exception and only you can waive it.
  • It does not accept a liability on your behalf — carrier terms, insured values and special conditions come back to you.
  • It is not a customs broker of record where your trade requires one; it prepares and instructs.
Questions

Asked before, answered here

Do you use our carriers or yours?
Yours if you have accounts and rates worth keeping. Ours where it is cheaper, priced side by side so you can see why.
Who is liable if a consignment is damaged?
The carrier, under their terms — and the desk's job is making sure the claim is made, on time, with the evidence, which is where most claims die.
International?
Yes, including customs documentation and duty. Landed cost is quoted as landed cost.
What if the date is going to slip?
The client is told before it slips. This is not negotiable and it is the single behaviour that keeps a late job from becoming a lost client.
Next department

Invoices out, cash in

And finally, getting paid for it.

Open Money

Which consignment has gone quiet this week?

Tell us, and we will say whether this desk fits. A no is quicker for both of us. This desk on its own is from £1,450 a month, thirty days' notice either way, and the first month is a paid trial.

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