VIN
Also known as: chassis number, Vehicle Identification Number
The VIN is the chassis number of a vehicle, seventeen positions. In Dutch vehicle import it is the key of the file: documents, statuses and declarations run per VIN, not per container alone.
What is a VIN and why does it count on import?
The VIN, Vehicle Identification Number, is the unique chassis number of a vehicle. It has seventeen positions: a world region and plant code, a description of the model, and a serial number. No two running cars share the same VIN. On import that number is the only stable identifier. Number plates do not yet exist, containers change, B/Ls cover dozens of cars. The VIN stands on the bill of sale, on the car itself, and belongs on the declaration. Without a VIN the consignment cannot be identified. An IMA for vehicles without a chassis number is a declaration without an object. Customs cannot recognise the car, cannot link the value, and cannot hang the release on a physical piece. Put the VIN in the stem of the file as a key, not as a remark. Spaces and hyphens from the invoice come off at intake. One normalisation, then the same seventeen characters on every document and on every declaration.
How does the VIN attach to the bill of sale and the customs value?
The bill of sale carries the VIN plus the price. That price is the transaction value of that car, not of the container. A container with twelve cars has twelve values, twelve VINs, twelve documents. The IMA follows that grain. You can group, but the reasoning stays per chassis number. An average price over the container does not stand up at a check if the bill of sale shows a different amount per car. A mismatch between VIN on the invoice and VIN on the car is a document error. The value can be right and the consignment still stays, because the document does not belong to the object. Dividing a container price by the number of cars is not valuation. Customs reads the bill of sale. If that differs per VIN, the IMA differs per VIN, even if they enter the country on one T1.
What does a VIN file look like in the Dutch chain?
In vehicle import the file is the container, and beneath it each vehicle is a line on VIN. Per VIN belong bill of sale, authorisation, identity document of the buyer and proof of payment. If one document is missing, that car is not complete, not the whole container. The T1 can run on the container. The IMA waits until the cars that go into free circulation are complete. Incomplete cars can enter a bonded warehouse, provided an authorisation lies at that location. Without that authorisation they cannot. Statuses therefore run per VIN: not complete, to check, approved. A container is only ready once every car has a status. The VIN is the unit of work, the container is the unit of transport. A car on not complete must not hold the complete cars hostage if the location allows a split. A location with a warehouse authorisation can take the incomplete VINs in. A location without cannot. The VIN makes that split possible, the container does not.
What if an object has no VIN?
Engines, machines and damaged objects sometimes have no chassis number in the sense of a vehicle VIN. Then the match key falls away. Customs still wants a unique identification, operations wants a line in the file, and a scan or a damage file has nothing to lock on. In those cases another key is needed, agreed in the master data, not invented on the quay. A number plate on import of a new or damaged car is usually empty: the vehicle is registered nowhere. Anyone who runs VIN-less volume cannot reuse the vehicle flow one for one. The IMA can run on description and serial number, but the control chain built on VIN stops. Agree the key before the object drives onto the quay. Inventing it on the quay is how the same engine lands twice in the file, or not at all. VIN-less is a design question, not an exception of the day.
How do you check a VIN before the declaration goes out?
Seventeen positions, no I, O or Q in the classic scheme, and the number on the invoice equal to the number on the packing list or the seawaybill. An OCR error of one character is enough to follow another car. Record the VIN as a key, not as a free text field. Spaces, hyphens and capitals that differ per source make three lines of one car. Normalise at intake, not at the IMA. At a physical check the VIN is the first thing the inspector looks for. If it is not on the declaration, or if another number stands there, the consignment is not the consignment of the document. Release then does not follow on the value, but on the identity. A VIN with an O instead of a 0 is another car. Check the number against the invoice and against the seawaybill, character for character, before the IMA goes out. OCR is a proposal, not a finding.
What goes wrong with VINs in the declaration chain?
The classic gap is a container T1 with cars of which some have no bill of sale. The T1 runs, the IMA cannot go for those VINs, and the time limit towards warehouse or release ticks on per car that stands still. The second gap is the same VIN in two files, through a typing error that was corrected without closing the old line. Two IMAs on one chassis number, or no IMA because the system thinks it has already been cleared. The third is relying on the number plate. On this import there is no plate. The VIN is the only key. Anyone who uses a plate as fallback has no fallback. Close the old line when you correct a typing error. Two open VINs for one car is how a second IMA arises, or how no IMA arises. One chassis number, one line, one status.