- North American Tuning, a young online company that sells aftermarket car parts, needed an efficient way to ship domestically and internationally.
- Owner Nick Romain turned to UPS WorldShip® to process orders and access customs documentation for both smaller packages and freight shipments.
- By visiting the Tools & Forms page on the UPS Supply Chain Solutions® site and completing forms online, Romain cuts processing time in half, saving 30 minutes on each international shipment.
Nick Romain has always loved American sports cars. And as a Frenchman (who now lives in Florida), he knew that Europeans love them, too. So when Ford Motor Co. came out with a hit new Mustang model in 2005, he realized it was the perfect time to leave his job with an export company and launch
North American Tuning, a business in Margate, Fla., that specializes in aftermarket car parts. After all, it wasn't just Americans who were buying fender covers and Shelby-style wheels but overseas fans, too – and he knew an online business would reach them.
Now Romain offers more than 750 parts and accessories for late-model sports cars such as Corvettes, Camaros, Chargers and Challengers. Customers order from his site from all over the United States as well as France, Sweden and South Korea. Most of his products are for the 2005 through 2009 model Mustangs. Using UPS, Romain ships about 70 orders a month, with about 25 percent – and growing – going overseas.
Any size, any speed
Romain partnered with UPS because of its competitive rates, and he uses the
UPS WorldShip® shipping system to process orders. "I got familiar with UPS services from the website," he says.
Most packages he ships weigh about 10 pounds and are sent by
UPS Ground to domestic destinations, though his customers can choose a UPS service for almost any speed they need. For international packages of the same size, he uses
UPS Worldwide Expedited®. For less urgent international shipments, this service still provides his customers with the reassurance of a fast, guaranteed service but at an economical rate – and with in-house customs clearance.
Easy-access documentation
But what about shipping a hefty body kit, which fills several 80-pound boxes? Or a multipackage set of wheels weighing a total of 180 pounds? For larger shipments, Romain relies on
UPS Freight® LTL (less than truckload) services for domestic deliveries and air or ocean freight for international ones. "I usually call to get quotes, but I do all the documentation online," he says. "The tools are quite helpful. You can generate the
Certificate of Origin and the
Customs Power of Attorney. Then I schedule a pickup, and UPS comes and gets it."
Easy online preparation of international shipping documentation makes Romain's global reach that much easier. "The car parts and accessories industry heavily relies on the mail-order and Internet business model," says Romain. "UPS makes export sales easier by offering shipping tools as well as export documentation tools."
Though it's a young company, North American Tuning has been growing steadily. Romain anticipates even more growth in 2010, when a new Mustang is scheduled to debut, and he plans to share the journey with UPS. "UPS does a great job at a great price," he says. "It's a great value."
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