Clarity. See total customs cost.
Duty, VAT, broker fees, delay costs and missed preferences in one view, across every market, so you finally know what customs really costs.
Cost control and visibility.
Customs costs more than the declaration fee, and most of it stays hidden. Gaston Schul brings your whole customs cost into one view, run as one full-service operating model across Europe, so you can see the total, stop the leakage, and decide on numbers you trust.
AEO Authorised
across our markets
Independent
and privately owned
Local teams
across Europe
180+ years
as customs and trade experts
THE PROBLEM
Customs cost is rarely one number.
It is duty and VAT, but it is also broker fees, delay costs, rework, missed preferences and your team's time. Spread across countries, brokers and systems, most of it never lands on one report.
So no one can say what customs really costs, or where it is leaking. And you cannot control a cost you cannot see.
THE LEAKAGE
Where customs cost leaks.
Customs cost rarely leaks in one place. It drains out across five, a little at a time.
Overpaid duty
Misclassification, valuation errors and reliefs you never claimed. Duty you did not owe, paid quietly, shipment after shipment.
Missed preferential rates
Trade agreements and origin you qualify for but do not use, so you pay the full rate when a lower one was there to claim.
VAT and cash flow
Import VAT paid up front instead of deferred or postponed, so working capital sits in customs instead of in the business.
Broker fees and rework
Fragmented broker charges across countries, a different invoice each time, and the cost of correcting errors after they are filed.
Delay costs
Holds, demurrage, storage and expedited freight when a clearance goes wrong. The cost that never makes it into the customs budget.
And underneath all of it: customs cost that only becomes clear after goods clear, often at financial close, when it is too late to act.
One method behind it all.
Lean Customs.
We designed our Lean Customs method as the proven process for making your customs & trade processes cost-efficient. Five steps that bring what customs really costs you into view, so you can reduce and optimise it.
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1
Standardise
One process and one standard in every country, so execution is predictable and audit-ready.
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2
Digitalise
Connected systems and automation that remove the manual work and give you one version of the truth.
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3
Visibility
One clear view of status, costs and risks, so problems surface before they escalate.
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4
Intelligence
Expertise applied to your data, so risks are flagged early and savings are found, not missed.
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5
Continuous Improvement
Improvement built into the operating model, so your customs gets better over time, not just maintained.
THE SERVICES BEHIND IT
The levers behind lower
customs cost.
Our full-service approach brings the cost levers together under one operating model, so saving is built in, not a one-off project.
WHO THIS HELPS
Built for the teams that carry the cost.
Finance
Total customs cost you can see and forecast, and working capital freed from import VAT.
Procurement
Real landed-cost data behind your sourcing and supplier decisions.
Supply Chain
Fewer delay costs and surprises, with cost visible across every flow.
Leadership
Customs as a managed cost line, not an unpredictable one.
RELATED NEWS
Customs & Trade. Controlled.
Gaston Schul does more than cut your customs costs. We connect it all and run it as one. That is what one full-service operating model gives you, across all your customs and trade in Europe: the clarity to see, the control to govern, and the confidence to decide.
