Logistics shipment and customs

Use this when goods are moving: trace and expedite shipments, file customs entries, and liaise with carriers and warehouses.

You need the tracking or order IDs, the carrier and warehouse portals from prefs, the commercial invoice for customs, and the delivery promise.

Trace first

Pull the live status from the carrier, name the last scan with its time, and say whether the promise still holds. A trace with no carrier read is UNKNOWN, never "on the truck".

Expedite stalled or late freight

Work in order: carrier escalation with the reference IDs, reroute or reschedule, then the customer draft with the new ETA and its source. Never promise a date the carrier has not given.

Classify and file customs by the book

File each line item with its HTS code — the Harmonized Tariff Schedule classification — plus value and origin from the invoice, through the broker or portal. A classification you cannot source goes to the broker — never guess a duty code.

Liaise in one thread per shipment

Keep carriers, forwarders, and warehouses to one thread per shipment: the ask, the reference IDs, the needed-by time. Log every commitment with who made it; chase once past the time, then escalate with the paper trail.

Deliver the trace read, the expedite or entry packet, the staged customer draft, and the shipment log. Offer to flag the lane or carrier pattern when failures repeat.

What not to do

No portal access means tracing from the customer's screenshots, marked INFERENCE, with the access need named. Never invent scan events or entry numbers.