Strategic Partners

Empowering Global Success through Trusted Partnerships

For over 20 years, Supply Chain Solutions (SCS) has been supporting our clients with international and domestic transportation, warehousing and consulting.

Our agent relationships are very important in supporting our international clients. We rely on our partners to exemplify the Core Values of SCS and to prioritize service and the experience of the client.

Partner Qualification

Expectation	Metric
Supply Chain Solutions expects our agents to excel at all communication	1. Asia – Overnight acknowledgement expected; response to quote requests is ideal. 2. Europe – Responses from morning to afternoon (or at least some acknowledgement of email received) 3. Immediate notification of any additional charges or operational delays
Proactive communication with supplier/overseas customer	Proactive communication that requires limited status inquiries repeated requests from SCS or the Supplier.
Professionalism and Integrity	Is courteous and professional in interactions with our Clients, Suppliers, and SCS team members at all times.
Regulatory Compliance	Registered with the Federal Maritime Commission to ensure compliance with US-bound cargo. See below for more information.
Accurate and Timely Invoicing	Zero errors or additional invoices received later. Send the invoice at time of shipping docs, or within a day.
Partner Mindset	Collaborate with SCS to develop new business for both partners. Represent relationship and capabilities of both SCS and the agent in local sales calls.
Service-Driven	1. Willingness to work as hard as SCS on sales/pricing. 2. Takes responsibility to make customer happy, shown through contacting SSL or airline on their side to support and resolve issue.
Use Technology to increase Efficiency	Existing automation or plans to deploy for rates (API feeds, integration, etc) to allow for speed to quote.
Insurance	Cargo legal liability insurance with a limit of not less than $250,000 per occurrence; and Errors and omissions insurance with a limit of not less than $250,000 per occurrence.
Sustainability	Able to measure carbon use by shipment as required by clients.

Regulatory Compliance

Supply Chain Solutions takes regulatory and compliance matters very seriously. The below are three areas that are especially relevant in our agent relationships.

FMC Registration

As you are likely already aware, Imports to the United States are subject to Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) regulations. What you may not already realize is that all agents who are importing to the US are required to be registered with the FMC. While this requirement has not been seriously enforced in the past, the FMC published this advisory in July 2023 that failure to meet these obligations could result in fines or other penalties.

(It should be noted that in the United States there is a difference between a Freight Forwarder and an NVOCC. A foreign company cannot be licensed with the FMC, but they are required to be Registered as a Foreign NVOCC if they are marking up the freight charges beyond what the steamship company is charging for the transportation.)

Failure to do so is considered a violation of §515.19 of the Shipping Act and can result in steep fines or being banned from steamship companies at the direction of the FMC. See 46 CFR §515.19 for more details.

Authorization to File AES – Routed Exports

The authorization to file AES in a routed export transaction is a US federal regulation. SCS is required by law to obtain a foreign power of attorney or written authorization from the foreign principal party in interest (FPPI) in a routed export transaction in order to file AES. There are two ways for us to meet this authorization requirement in a routed transaction:

Foreign Power of Attorney from consignee, or
Signed export filing agreement with the agent accompanied by a signed statement from the FPPI (consignee) that the agent is authorized to arrange the AES filing on their behalf.

Either of these can remain on file for reference on future shipments until they expire or are revoked. See 15 CFR §30.3(e)(2) for more details.

Insurance

Cargo legal liability insurance with a limit of not less than $250,000 per occurrence; and Errors and omissions insurance with a limit of not less than $250,000 per occurrence.

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