Shipping instructions are one of those things nobody talks about and everybody redoes.
They arrive by mail. They change, sometimes weekly. Someone retypes them into the system, rebuilds the document from the last one, and sends it on. By the time the vessel sails, the instruction has been copied by hand at least once.
What a shipping instruction carries
Consignee, notify party, port of discharge, quantity, HS code, and the documents required: certificate of origin, phytosanitary certificate, the number of original bills of lading. Every one of those fields already exists somewhere in the contract or the shipment. Retyping them is where a changed port or a corrected quantity slips through.
Every field proposed, every change yours to accept
Apollo Negoce is automating that. The instruction is matched to the right contract and the right shipment. Every field is read and proposed against what the contract already says, and you accept or refuse each change. The gap shows itself before anyone signs, and the instruction goes back by mail, under your signature.
The part nobody counts
Forty minutes per instruction, eleven a month. That is close to a full working day every month, on a task that creates no value. The forty minutes are an estimate, not a measurement: nobody has ever put a stopwatch on relaying a shipping instruction, which is exactly why it never gets fixed.
Nobody has ever timed relaying a shipping instruction. That is exactly why it never gets fixed.
Frequently asked questions
What is a shipping instruction in physical commodity trading?
The instruction the buyer sends for a shipment: consignee, notify party, port of discharge, quantity, HS code and the documents required, such as the certificate of origin, the phytosanitary certificate and the number of original bills of lading.
Why are shipping instructions error prone?
They arrive by email, change from one week to the next, and are usually retyped from the previous one. A changed discharge port or quantity can go unnoticed until the documents are issued.
How does Apollo Negoce handle shipping instructions?
Apollo Negoce is building it: the instruction is matched to the right contract and shipment, every field is proposed against what the contract says, and the user accepts or refuses each change before anything is signed.
