There are more than 16,600 different classification codes
Classification of a product is based on what it is used for and what materials it is predominantly made from.
Whether or not you have an agent who handles customs entries on your behalf, as the importer you have a legal responsibility to ensure the correct classification is applied.
Incorrect classification can lead to; delays in clearing goods, over or underpayment of duty and even to penalties from HMRC.
The Classification is made up of up to 10 numbers and is based on the WTO World Trade Organisations harmonised system.
An 8 digit code is acceptable on exports
All 10 digits are required on imports
For more information on Import duty please also read the following:
Four years ago the Equality Act brought together various pieces of legislation, and provided for nine ‘protected characteristics’, namely pregnancy and maternity; marriage and civil partnership; sexual orientation; sex; religion or belief; race; gender reassignment; disability; and age.
It would be nice to think that legislation was, and is, unnecessary to tell us that everybody should be treated the same. But, although we’ve embraced ‘diversity’, there are still issues that have to be addressed.
When the Equality Act 2010 was in its infancy there was much advice dished out to employers. It was often defensive. Would newly empowered staff be instigating countless tribunals? ‘Claims may now be successful even when there is insufficient evidence to prove discrimination based on just one of the characteristics’ was a warning. ‘Pay secrecy’ was to be illegal; the staff could compare their salaries! Was this too much ‘power to the people’?
It all rather detracted from the aims of the Act which were to ensure that everybody was given an equal chance and not suffer discrimination.
Four years on we’re more positive and see the benefits of equality and diversity. Employers with a diverse workforce have a wider talent pool to draw on. A mix of ages creates a team that blends youthful thinking with seasoned experience. A balance of genders creates a more informed workforce with male and female opinions represented. A diverse corporate culture has a positive effect on morale; people like working for an aware company.
And yet, even allowing for these business benefits, some are still ‘more equal than others’. I’m not proposing more legislation. What I am suggesting is that there is still a need for cultural change. Take child care, and care for the elderly, as examples. The cost of looking after working parents’ children is much discussed. But the concept of greater flexibility in working hours is something that could help parent, child and employer in a ‘win win’ outcome. An experienced person is available for work, the employer benefits from that, and family life is easier arranged.
With increasing longevity many people now have the care of elderly parents to consider. Are there valuably experienced workers out there who are, probably unintentionally, discriminated against because they need a bit more flexibility in the times they could start and finish work?
The benefits of a more diverse workforce are particularly attractive to smaller businesses. A range of experience, a flexible workforce, the stimulation of ideas from a mix of backgrounds all contribute to a vibrant working atmosphere. Is there though a problem in the small business sector in that they suffer from a lack of known role models? It’s not universally true of course but when the media want examples of glass ceilings and class divides it seems they look no further than our big and established institutions. Many of them talk the talk, but visibly fail to walk the walk. I would like to see our smaller businesses’ good practice more visible as an example to others.
This edition is all about innovation, and as much as I am a big technology fan, I’m going to leave the techy stuff to the other contributors. I want to talk about creating the culture of learning and innovation in your business. This culture well help organisations unlock ideas to drive forward the business and also help empower and motivate team members.
In their 2008 Harvard Business Review Article, “Is Yours a Learning Organization?”, David A. Garvin, Amy C. Edmondson, and Francesca Gino, explore the three building blocks of becoming a learning organisation as follows;
1: A supportive learning environment. An environment that supports learning has four distinguishing characteristics;
i. Psychological safety. Team members need to be safe to ask questions, try things out and make mistakes, without fear of reprisal
ii. Appreciation of differences. Recognising the value of alternative views increases energy and motivation, sparks fresh thinking, and prevents lethargy and drift.
i. Openness to new ideas. Learning is not simply about correcting mistakes and solving problems. It is also about crafting novel approaches. Employees should be encouraged to take risks and explore the untested and unknown.
ii. Time for reflection. Supportive learning environments allow time for a pause in the action and encourage thoughtful review of the organisation’s processes.
2: Concrete learning processes and practices. A learning organization is not cultivated effortlessly. Learning processes involve the generation, collection, interpretation, and dissemination of information. They include experimentation to develop and test new products and services; intelligence gathering to keep track of competitive, customer, and technological trends; disciplined analysis and interpretation to identify and solve problems; and education and training to develop both new and established employees.
3: Leadership that reinforces learning.Organisational learning is strongly influenced by the behaviour of leaders. When leaders actively question and listen to employees-and thereby prompt dialogue and debate-people in the organisation feel encouraged to learn. When leaders demonstrate a willingness to entertain alternative points of view, employees feel emboldened to offer new ideas.
The three building blocks of organisational learning reinforce one another and, to some degree, overlap. Just as leadership behaviours help create and sustain supportive learning environments, such environments make it easier for managers and employees to execute concrete learning processes and practices smoothly and efficiently. They foster learning and to cultivate that behaviour in others.
To read the article in full, please visit www.hbr.org
Coronavirus continues to have a huge impact the day-to-day operations of businesses across our region. Norfolk Chambers stand ready to support you, but we need to understand what challenges you are facing and how well the government support initiatives are working. Working in partnership with the British Chambers of Commerce, we need to hear from you about how your business is coping. In this 2-3 minute poll: Covid-19 Business Tracker – please tell us the immediate business conditions you are facing and whether your business has recently used any of the support packages from government and what your experience was.
Your input is essential to our work on behalf of the overall Norfolk business community. As a business leader, your views have never been more important.
The production and trade of counterfeit goods in China is the thorn in the side of most well-known brands, but it’s not only the global giants that are affected. From rip-offs of fashion and beauty products to fake spirits and medicine, nearly every business could be impacted; particularly, those that manufacture their goods in the country. Is there anything that they can do?
It’s said that if a business wishes to see if its products are being counterfeited, it just needs to run a search on Alibaba. The Chinese auction site dwarfs equivalents such as eBay in terms both of its product range and revenue, and also acts as a major channel for the sale of fake goods, much to the frustration of brand owners.
Kering, the company behind luxury brands Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, is currently suing the Chinese ecommerce group for encouraging and profiting from the sale of counterfeit goods on its platform. Like many brand owners, Kering is angry at what it considers to be Alibaba’s slow response to counterfeit allegations and what it perceives as ‘complicity’ in the sale of those items.
“My experience of Alibaba is that it has been slow to react in the past and well behind other sites, such as eBay,” agrees Tom Farrand, Managing Director, Trademarks, at Novagraaf in the UK. “This can be partly explained by the sheer volume of Chinese-originating counterfeit goods, and also the market for them. One of the problems shared by Alibaba and brand owners is that, at present, many customers are on the site not looking for real products.”
Farrand expects the case to lead to some improvements at the platform, but says that “there is still much to do and a long way to go”.
Taking action If you do find your products after running a search on Alibaba, what should you do? The platform’s complaint process is still the best place to start before starting a more expensive legal action. “The company’s rate of response to counterfeit action is starting to getting quicker, the complaint process has been improved and follow-up is better,” says Farrand. Online monitoring will help you to build up evidence of counterfeit activity that should make it possible to ensure the website removes the goods or seller.
Of course, brand owners are advised to tackle the source of the counterfeit goods, not just the channels in which they are sold. Where a problematic seller is identified on Alibaba, for example, additional investigation will help you to find out more about the product’s manufacturers and distribution channels in order to stamp them out at source.
Here, levels of IP coverage, as well as techniques to prevent and identify activity, will be important. This includes, for example:
registering key brand and product names as trademarks, and innovative design features as design rights, so that you can seek legal redress for any unauthorised use of those trademark or design rights (e.g. for the manufacture, distribution and sale of trademarked goods);
raising awareness of the issues within your business by educating your staff, business partners and customers;
actively monitoring the online and offline market, recording, reporting and carefully analysing the findings;
working closely with law enforcement authorities such as the Border Force (Customs) and local Trading Standards offices that have a statutory duty to enforce the criminal provisions of Trademarks Act; and
taking enforcement action where appropriate.
If the manufacture of the fake goods is taking place in China, you will need to liaise with local agents or investigators and involve local police and authorities in order to target the manufacturer at source. This is not a simple task. Novagraaf provides anti-counterfeiting services to a number of brand names in the country, from online trademark monitoring to investigation, trap purchases, trademark training, trademark recordals and legal representation in customs seizure proceedings.
A third of leisure travellers say they would not return to a hotel that offered inadequate wireless access, and this number rises to two-thirds of business guests.” – Hotel Industry Magazine
These are pretty scary numbers for hotel owners. In other words, you can provide great food, a shower that wakes you up in the morning, crisp white bed linen, but if the average business traveller can’t get their emails, then they simply won’t return. There’s an image that often floats around on LinkedIn which uses Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to identify the importance of good Wi-Fi in our lives – it jokingly shows Wi-Fi as more important than food, warmth and a roof over our heads. I’ve been on holiday with two tweenagers and the first thing they ask for when we hit our accommodation is “what’s the Wi-Fi code?”. The desire for us to be in constant communication is driving an insatiable appetite for a good quality network connection.
So, why are certain hotel owners, public venues, coffee shops still getting it so wrong in Norfolk? Here are my top three theories :
Venues don’t use the bandwidth they have to ensure each visitor has a consistent experience. Here in Norfolk, we all know about limitations on broadband and general connectivity, but you have to work with what you have. For instance, if a hotel only has a 10Mb/s broadband line coming in, why allow one guest on a Breaking Bad Netflix all-nighter take up the whole lot? If you had visibility of your Wi-Fi network, then you’ll have the ability to provide users with individual bandwidth limits or restrict things like Netflix altogether. That way, everyone can get their emails, login to Facebook, keep up to date on WhatsApp and Instagram – all minimal bandwidth stuff to maintain happy visitors.
Getting logged in is really tiresome. I’ve given up even trying to log into certain Wi-Fi locations simply due to a dreadful login process. Why would the provider want to collect all sorts of information? We’re happy to give up our email address so that you can let us know about great offers, but home address and mobile numbers are just a step too far in return for a bit of bandwidth. Make it as simple as you can for your guests and they’ll return for more. Providing a simple splash page welcoming your guest or even telling them about your special offers on dinner for the evening would provide a pleasant experience. Even better, might be to use social media logins, such as Facebook. That way, your guest will be telling everyone that they’re enjoying coffee or staying at your venue.
Weak Wi-Fi signal. A lot of venues and hotels jumped on the Wi-Fi bandwagon 10 years ago and invested heavily in “future tech”. The problem is, the IT world has seen enormous change in that period. I typically carry three devices around with me, each with a different purpose, but all with the capability to connect. We also have a massive array of devices with huge amounts of power and intelligence that are now incompatible with older Wi-Fi platforms. To add to the complexity, 10 users with 3 devices each means 30 connections and older access points just can’t cope with the density.
The good news is that Wi-Fi technology has come a long way to cope with this changing connected world. There are multiple vendors out there offering technologies that can solve the issues mentioned above and provide you with valuable data analytics to grow your business. For hotel owners, it sounds as though it’s as important as getting the dinner menu right, providing a clean bathroom or ensuring you have the right staff to say hello in reception.
For many small businesses considering fleet management, buying vehicles may seem the best plan of action. However, when using your own vehicles – maintenance, repairs and associated costs lie solely in the hands of the business owner. The business also has total responsibility for the acquisition and disposal of vehicles – diverting cash flow from critical areas of business management.
Many businesses purchase used vehicles to cut down on expenses, but this approach is costing SMEs significantly down the line. Almost half (45%) of the total GHG emissions from road transport in the EU comes from company fleets, which is the result of the sector’s reliance on fuel inefficient vehicles. While leading to poor fuel management, used vehicles are also more prone to breakdowns and fleet downtime, resulting in costly repairs. As highlighted in LowCVP’s report, by choosing the right fleet vehicle, businesses can save up to £18,000 throughout the vehicle’s lifetime.
The cost of vehicle maintenance and downtime is costing businesses thousands. According to research from RAC Business, having vehicles off the road is costing UK SMEs up to £500 a day, equating to hours of fleet downtime – time which no business can afford to sacrifice.
Worryingly, many are unaware of the costs associated with vehicle ownership:
“Our research reveals that many of the UK’s small businesses are seriously miscalculating the true cost of maintaining their fleets, large or small, and in most cases spending far more than is necessary.” Alan Maloney of Ford Retail.
As businesses struggle to budget for the costs of big fleet management, fleet hire offers greater business agility, financial control and flexibility.
Summarised by The Why Buy? Report: “for most businesses, commercial vehicle rental would be more cost effective than purchasing”.
Keeping your vehicles on the road
Vehicle maintenance and repairs is often the most costly area of fleet management. Surprisingly, tyre problems are to blame for 21% of all breakdowns. Simple, easy to fix issues such as under inflated tyres are regularly going undetected by businesses, causing mounting problems further down the road.
When your fleet vehicles aren’t serviced properly, further problems can occur – increasing the downtime of your fleet and inevitably the cost to your business.
Most fleet leasing services include a dedicated maintenance plan as standard and we personally operate a ‘keep you on the road’ philosophy. Our team of dedicated specialists are on hand 24/7, 365 days a year to offer your business quick and effective breakdown and repair services, keeping downtime to a minimum.
Flexibility
A common misconception about vehicle leasing is that flexibility is limited. However, with a leasing company like Burnt Tree, a number of flexible rental terms are available to suit your business needs, meaning you are never tied into lengthy un-breakable contracts. You can also return vehicles or exchange for the latest models without any penalties or additional costs.
Our flexible leasing allows businesses to financially plan ahead, without the fear of unplanned maintenance bills – cutting down on one of the largest areas of business spending. When using leased vehicles exclusively for business, you can also claim back 100% of the VAT, while lease payments are tax deductible.
With over 30 years’ experience working with small businesses, we appreciate that no two businesses are the same and each require specific needs catered to their business model, goals and budget. For more information on how our bespoke fleet management services can help you save money, contact us
Fleet compliance is not only required by the law, but it is also vital for ensuring the safety of your drivers. Among fleet drivers, accident rates far exceed the national average, with commercial vehicles accounting for nearly one in five road deaths according to road safety charity Brake.
A study by IAM Drive & Survive surveyed 100 businesses and found that almost nine out of ten fleets had experienced an accident in the past 12 months. More worryingly, half of the drivers surveyed said that they hadn’t received any follow-up training after an incident, increasing the risk of an accident happening again in the future. Shockingly, every participant in the study admitted that they had been in an accident that was their fault – highlighting the need for effective accident management.
The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 highlights your responsibility as an employer, stating: “you must ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the health and safety of all employees while at work. You must also ensure that others are not put at risk by your work-related driving activities.”
Managing fleet compliance is solely in the hands of you and your business, as well as any costs or injuries occurred from accidents – making the enforcement of accident management essential.
Ensure the wellbeing of drivers
In fleet culture, long hours place drivers in jeopardy of fatigue. Loss of concentration, irritability and a decrease in vigilance increases the risk of accidents, with fatigue contributing to 20% of fatal collisions. It is impossible to monitor how much sleep and rest your drivers receive, which is why safe driving training is a vital aspect of fleet compliance management, highlighting the dangers of fatigue to your fleet.
As discussed by The Health and Safety Executive, employers have a legal duty to assess the risks to the health and safety of employees and offer training and instructions for effective accident management. This includes dealing with issues associated with over-working, as well as other factors that impact the health of drivers such as alcohol and substance misuse.
Is your fleet breaking the law?
When it comes to the rules of the road, Brake charity’s report highlights how 49% of motorists admit to breaking traffic laws. This may be a result of the declining number of active police patrols, with 23% of drivers breaking the law “because they think they can get away with it”. Fleet drivers may be tempted to adopt this mentality when working against the clock to make deliveries, risking speed violations in attempt to meet tight deadlines.
It is possible that your drivers are breaking the law without even realising. Aesthetically similar vehicles can have different legal speed limits due to their classification as car derived vehicles. Likewise, the recent revisions to HGV speed limits highlights the need for an up to date knowledge and clear grasp of your vehicles legal requirements and restrictions.
Vehicle telematics technology enables you to effectively monitor your fleet and access real-time data – ensuring fleet compliance with duty of care and road transport regulations.
Compliance with the DVSA
For fleet vehicles to be legally roadworthy, they must pass the yearly Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency compliance check. While the past few years have highlighted a downward trend in prohibitions and serious offences, brake systems are still flagging red lights, accounting for up to 10% of HGV prohibitions.
Brake disk fractures and excessive brake actuator travel are common offenders, yet these defects can be avoided by efficient management and quality checks before the parts reach critical levels of damage. When using your own vehicles, it is the responsibility of the business owner to ensure fleet compliance management and maintenance, as well as associated costs for offending vehicles.
With our leased vehicles, we take care of every aspect of servicing and maintenance, with MOTs and regular servicing at manufacture recommended intervals to ensure your vehicles are always compliant with regulations. On the small chance that your fleet experiences a problem, our ‘keep you on road’ philosophy ensures that your vehicles are never off the road for long, minimising downtime as much as possible.
Contracts are part and parcel of business activity, and that’s also true for contracts relating to IP rights. Confidentiality agreements, licence agreements, merger or acquisition, sale or divestment, employee-inventor remuneration agreements… these are just some of the types of contracts that touch on a company’s IP portfolio. However, some contracts are more common than others. Novagraaf’s Jonathan Ney rounds up the most common IP contracts, and explains the importance of proactive contract management.
It is essential for companies to manage their contracts, particularly contracts relating to IP rights. Even if you have no intention of selling or licensing your IP, you will most likely find that you still have (or should have) IP-related contracts; for example, confidentiality agreements with your manufacturers; ownership/anti-theft clauses in your employee contracts; and, assignment agreements for IP rights acquired as part of a merger or acquisition.
Businesses need to understand and regularly review the scope of these and other such agreements if they are to ensure that they are both properly protecting their valuable IP rights from theft or accidental lapse and increasing the value of the IP portfolio.
In addition, there are a number of defined contract types that businesses will need to call on as their business evolves and grows. The most common of these enable companies to:
Assign rights to or acquire rights from a third party
Contract type: Transfer of ownership/assignment This contract allows an IP rights holder to transfer all or part of its ownership of IP rights to a third party. Without this legal form of transfer, the new owner will not be able to exploit the rights.
Authorise another person or company to exploit IP right/s
Contract type: Licence agreement The licence agreement is probably one of a business’s most strategic contracts. It enables the holder of an IP right to authorise another person to exploit that right. However, it is not an assignment contract. The IP rights holder does not assign any of its ownership rights in the IP to a third party, but may give the licensee some rights to enforce that IP. A licence can take many forms – sole, exclusive or non-exclusive; partial or full; indefinite or fixed term; fixed price, royalty or royalty free, for example.
Manage co-ownership as part of IP creation
Contract type: Joint or co-ownership agreement This type of agreement allows the parties involved in a joint IP creation project to set out the rights and obligations of all the co-owners.
Settle terms with the owner of a conflicting trademark
Contract type: Co-existence agreement This type of agreement comes into being where brand owners with conflicting trademarks need to record terms of their coexistence; for example, not to move into the other party’s industry sector.
Use their IP rights to raise finance or secure debt
Contract type: security assignments/charges over IP rights This type of contract functions as a form of guarantee to the creditor that the debtor will repay the value borrowed or forfeit the IP set out in the contract.
Protect know-how, as well as their IP rights; e.g. processes, manufacturing formulas, trade secrets, innovation that is not patent-protected, etc
Contract type: license agreement/manufacturing agreement/confidentiality agreement License agreements enable IP rights holders to license know-how to third parties. Commonly this will also form part of a manufacturing and/or confidentiality agreement put in place with manufacturers or sellers of goods. It provides a form of protection wherein a third party is entrusted with important technical information in order to exploit it. The holder of the know-how, however, retains full ownership rights of the expertise covered by the licence. It is also important to ensure that employee contracts specify that all confidential information and know-how information is the property of the company.
Contract management Of course, getting the contract terms defined and agreed is only the first part of the process. In order to ensure the terms are monitored, royalty fees paid and obligations fulfilled, businesses also need a system for organising, managing and searching those contracts. Here, an effective contract management system is crucial. As with your IP rights portfolio in general, properly recording your contract rights in an accessible and searchable database could make all the difference between a protected IP right and a lost deal.
Finally, whichever type of contract you choose, it is important to make sure that it’s drafted according to your unique business needs. For further advice or assistance, get in touch with your IP attorney or contact us.
When the economic climate is tough it can often be events or activities that help promote well-being at work that are the first to be deleted from the budget. Evidence from recent studies conducted by New Economics Foundation, the UK’s leading think tank promoting social, economic and environmental justice, show that people who achieve good standards of well-being at work are likely to be more creative, more loyal, more productive and provide better customer satisfaction than those with poor levels of well-being at work. From the individual’s perspective well-being may be all about maintaining a good work/life balance or healthy lifestyle. The same could also be said from the company point of view although, clearly, such companies would also wish to see outcomes from any well-being activities they support financially to have outcomes that are relevant to the workplace.
So are such cost savings a false economy or a worthwhile measure?As the much circulated ‘conversation’ goes:
CFO asks CEO “What happens if we invest in developing our people and then they leave us?
CEO “What happens if we don’t and they stay?”
Replace the word ‘people’ with ‘teams’ and the message remains the same. Almost always it is the team effort (or lack of) that determines whether a project is deemed a success (or not). Whilst a good leader can inspire, if the team are under-motivated or not joined-up then the task still remains enormous.
Team building does not need to be expensive or over complicated. But it does need to be relevant to the workplace. It also needs to be suitable for all abilities (both in the work place and physical sense). In organisations where the work force age spread may range from the teenager through to the near-retiree finding the right balance is important. Ultimately, whatever team building format you select it must be both engaging and inspiring but, perhaps, more importantly, work!
Since April additional charges have been introduced to all electricity supplies.
These charges, along with other government policies, are part of the Electricity Market Reform (EMR). These additional charges are to help raise the £110bn worth of investment that is needed over the next 10 years to make sure we can all put the kettle on after the News and to meet carbon reduction targets as a nation.
Unfortunatley, this legislation affects all electricity consumers. Controlling the amount of energy you use will help reduce the costs & when you are renewing your electricity supply contracts ensure you understand how these costs are included in the prices you are quoted.
We have prepared a little guide to give you a better understanding of the EMR in under 5 mins.
The Unmanned Aerial System (UAS), Quad-copter or drones as the popular press like to call them, have become notorious over recent years. Some of this notoriety is well found. Where they have earned a bad reputation is in part because they have become so accessible, people are flying them without the necessary experience in places where to be honest its dangerous to the public to fly these drones. It may also be illegal is some cases. So… there’s no real need to expand on the negative press about them, its well known and well documented.
Make a significant difference to the production values of as business film
As a professional business film maker, (www.aboutmybusinessvideo.co.uk ) however and to you the business owner, having the facility to use video and images filmed by a Phantom 3, Inspire 1 or any other drone for that matter, can make a significant difference to the production values of a business film. It also enables you to show and demonstrate aspects of your product or business that would not have been possible without aerial video. So when it’s available why not?
Increase property sales
There are some very unusual uses of drones on YouTube, which does make fascinating viewing. Many of these are around delivery of product, often food or mail. Even Amazon are suggesting they will be using drones soon.
However I believe the real value of using a drone is where the video camera is used to best effect. One use that you may have seen is to increase property sales.
Agents or vendors can use drones to shoot aerial stills of properties to show unusual angles or to use video to show the extent of grounds and facilities. I was recently contacted on Linked In… in response to a question I asked about how businesses are using video. A lady who I had worked with many years ago contacted me to tell me… as a property agent… they had used video to market property and had sold property to prospects who had only seen the video and not visited. A big advantage when you are looking for property from the other side of the world. Here is an example of a property agent sold on the idea https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEBzr5CiY8s#t=25
Smooth Internal shots show how living in a property might work for you
Internal shots of property can be taken using similar technology. The reason drone videos look so smooth is because the video camera is set on a gimbal which keeps the camera level, no matter what the attitude of the aircraft. For internal shots we a use a hand held 3 axis gimbal with a extremely hi resolution camera (4K) for internal smooth shots… to show how living in a property might work for a prospect… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgiD0k342C8
Farmers Are Using Drones Out in the fields
Other boom areas for drone usage are security, survey and agriculture. Farmers and their consultants are using drones to take a closer look out in the fields and saving lots of money by doing so.
It might be that aerial footage is the best way to shoot a cinematic introduction to your video depending upon your business and situation. I am current making a film for a school with a rural situation and I plan to do just that.
Let us know how you want to use Video for your business
If you have any interesting uses for unmanned aerial systems or drones please let us know… as a business filmmaker I’m always on the look out for new and innovative ways to get cinematic shots.