Meet Dale Hawson, our Customs and Excise expert with over 10 years of experience in navigating complex trade regulations and ensuring seamless import/export operations.
PROFESSIONAL INSIGHTS:
1) Can you tell us a bit about your role at Langdon and what a typical day looks like for you?
I am the customs consultant at Langdon. Overall, my role is to help ensure that everything our software and our clients do in the customs & excise space is done in the right way.
Some of my day is spent fielding technical customs queries, both external from clients and internal from our product and development teams. I may also be assisting with applications for special procedures for new clients, or queries from HMRC around existing authorisations. I also touch on the implementation side of things, including pre-sales conversations and aspects of the onboarding process.
The more ‘business as usual’ would be conducting health checks on our clients customs declarations, seeking to identify potential data errors which may lead to duty reclaims.
2) What drew you to the Customs and Excise Solutions industry?
I would love to say I grew up with a passion for customs software, but I’m not sure that would be true for anybody!
I ended up in the Customs & Excise industry completely by chance, successfully applying for a technical training scheme at HMRC and being placed with a CITEX (Customs, International Trade & Excise) team in London.
After several years in HMRC operations I decided to look for an external challenge.
I had become aware of Langdon via compliance checks on companies which used the software and knew it had an excellent reputation across Customs & Excise teams.
I was happy to accept an offer to join.
3) What is the most challenging aspect of your job and how do you overcome it?
Probably balancing the various demands on my time, ad hoc internal and external queries, project work, new client implementations and fielding enquiries.
It can also be a challenge to translate the language of Customs & Excise into ‘plain speak’ for people not involved in the industry day to day. We definitely have something of a habit for speaking in acronyms!
4) How do you stay updated with the ever-changing regulations in customs and excise?
Daily HMRC emails highlight changes to systems which we may need to consider. We are fortunate to be a member of several trade bodies which are frequently consulted around potential larger-scale changes in Customs & Excise policy.
We also attend events hosted by a range of industry bodies which often involve speakers from HMRC.
PERSONAL TOUCH:
5) What do you enjoy most about working in this industry?
The vast range of companies and different types of operations that we engage with.
No two days are the same, and every implementation will present a new challenge.
It is particularly interesting to be able to visit clients on site and see their operations first hand.
6) How do you unwind after a busy day ensuring compliance and smooth customs operations?
I have an 18-month-old daughter who keeps me on my toes when I am at home. Outside of home my unwinding is usually done at the gym, headphones in and shut the world out for an hour.
COMPANY CULTURE:
7) What do you appreciate most about the team at Langdon?
Absolutely everyone is approachable almost all the time. Whether it is directors, developers, the product team or the support team – everyone has time for anyone to ask questions or seek advice.
8) How does Langdon support your professional growth and development?
The company has always been active in encouraging staff to undergo professional qualifications. Everyone in the business undertakes a good level of Customs & Excise training, as understanding the environment is crucial to being able to offer the right solutions and provide support to clients.
I have completed 3 levels of Customs qualifications in my 2 years with Langdon, as well as a comprehensive Excise qualification.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE:
9) What trends do you see shaping the future of the Customs and Excise Solutions industry?
Speaking with potential clients we are finding that business that may have taken the duty hit from Brexit in the name of short-term continuity are now looking to optimise their customs operations. Customs Warehousing and Inward Processing seem to be more and more prevalent.
With this increase in the use of special procedures, we also see a shortage in personnel to fill related roles – this is leading to a rise in the popularity of outsourcing management of customs processes to third parties. Langdon recently began offering
a bureau service as a result of this requirement.
We are also seeing a big trend for automation, not just in the duty management space, but in data as well. As examples that could cover things like robotic scanning to turn a physical invoice into a dataset, or automated tariff classification tools.
