Lockdown

Today, we had the awful task of telling 107 of our friends that their job was over. They had to go home – don’t come tomorrow. There may be some Government support (it is all a bit fuzzy right now) but we will do what we can to make sure that they get as much support as is available.

We also had to tell our clients – you – that we have closed down. Not because we chose to but because we were ordered to do so. Government has told us that “we need your support to protect New Zealand and eradicate COVID-19. Enforcement measures may be used to ensure everyone acts together, now.” There is a stiff jackboot behind all the ‘be-kind-to-each-other’ niceness, make no mistake. There is just no way that we could keep our four distribution centres open.

Our priority now is to ensure that your goods are stored safely until circumstances change (or, if you prefer, politicians get mugged by reality). When trade resumes, as it inevitably will, we will be here for you. We sincerely hope that you will still be here too.

There is some uncertainty about what exactly is meant by “essential goods” – exempted from the restrictions. A truck company operator got an indication from the Ministry of Transport saying that the Government does not intend to disrupt supply chains and the Government website notice has an ambiguous reference to “fast moving consumer goods”, no doubt some jargon picked up by a junior bureaucrat. We have decided to take a common-sense approach and interpret the words ‘non-essential’ for what they are. Until the meaning is redefined.

We have kept a small team of key staff on. The four directors and our two accountants are here (at their homes, of course), as is our Customs Manager and a few other indispensables.

If you have incoming goods, we will endeavour to receive them. If we are doing the Customs clearance or 3PL work for you, we will arrange to receive your incoming containers in our secure yards but cannot unpack them or count the contents. If you are using other forwarders or Customs brokers, ask them to book their deliveries with us (if the forwarders cannot store then) and we will do our best to receive them when we can. Again, they will not be counted into stock and you need to make your own arrangements with the relevant parties for container demurrage and detention.

We will be charging our clients for weekly storage costs (when we are not already doing so) as our landlord is so uncouth as to expect us to continue to pay rent. Likewise, we will be asking you to prepay all disbursements on Customs clearance imports, like duty, GST, Port Service Charges and Freight collections, as our bankers have about as much sense of humour as our landlord.

We are home but available. You can get us on Zoom or FaceTime, of just call us on our mobiles or email us. Daniel 021 877 015 daniel@dsl.co.nz / John 021 769 560 john@dsl.co.nz / Phillip 021 769 567 phillip@dsl.co.nz / Aaron 021 769 561 aaron@dsl.co.nz.

Daniel Silva

daniel@dsl.co.nz