“To track an item through a supply chain and trace its whereabouts in transit”
WDL has worked within an excise goods environment for over 30 years and the changes that have occurred in that period have been relatively few until now.
Consumers want to know where their goods are sourced whom produces them “farm to fork”. This comes under the acronym of Block Chain Management.
There will be more on Block Chain Management in the coming weeks.
Track and trace policies were additional to the Tobacco products directive 2 . This was ensure that goods produced at factory level were tracked all the way to the end user at a retail store.
The line of supply for these goods are as follows.
- Producer
- Distributor/Bonded Stores (excise warehouse)
- Duty paid warehouse (after duty is paid)
- Wholesaler *
- Retailer
- Consumer
*Some distributors go direct to retail and miss out the wholesale arm in point 4
How Track and Trace works
Tobacco is made up of 4 categories:
- Cigarettes
- Roll Your Own
- Pipe Tobacco
- Cigars
Sectors 1&2 are to implement with track and trace from May 2019 with sectors 3&4 to be implemented in 2024.
EURP – Process of tracking a pack of cigarettes or roll your own within the EU countries
As in the line of goods previously mentioned the following is now implemented;
The issue for some traders in the UK is that the larger tobacco companies ship in haulier mode one deliver (large Truck) whereas the smaller distributors have use couriers.
You couldn’t have a 38ton truck trying to deliver a parcel down a high street for example. It’s a courier that offers this service.
So, for the couriers this is processed to be complaint and WDL are trying to work on a one concept fits all solution for this and we will report back on this with further findings in this fledgling stage of implementation.
Track and Trace will come into fruition for additional excise goods in time so being in this environment ensures our experience can be supportive to other categories of trade.