Growth-stage companies routinely underestimate what fragmented import operations cost them — in duty leakage, demurrage, and management attention. A structured trade lane review usually pays for itself in one quarter.
For companies scaling internationally, import logistics tends to grow by accretion: a freight forwarder chosen years ago, a customs broker inherited from a supplier relationship, Incoterms accepted as offered. Each decision was reasonable. The sum rarely is.
The costs hide in places finance does not routinely look. Duty leakage from imprecise HS classification. Demurrage and detention charges absorbed as 'the cost of doing business.' Preferential duty programs — FTAs the company qualifies for but never claims. And the quietest cost of all: senior operations leaders spending hours a week expediting shipments instead of building the business.
A structured trade lane review takes four to six weeks and answers three questions. What are we actually paying, end-to-end, per lane? Where are we leaking duty, fees, or time? And which of those leaks are worth fixing first?
In our experience, mid-market importers typically find 8–15% of landed cost recoverable through classification corrections, FTA utilization, carrier consolidation, and disciplined document flows. None of it requires new systems — it requires ownership.
The strategic question is whether that ownership should live in-house. For many growth-stage firms, a managed trade function delivers the discipline of a large-company trade compliance team at a fraction of the fixed cost.