Customs clamping down on shipping details

CALGARY — Canadian customs officials are in the midst of changing the way goods are shipped across the 49th parallel and as the saying goes, "the devil’s in the details."

The CBSA will be rolling out the next phase of its Automated Commercial Information (ACI) initiative this year, and Jason Proceviat, acting director of stakeholder consultation and implementation division of CBSA, says it will have a major impact on the way business is done.

Proceviat updated members of ieCanada on the eManifest program as part of the association’s seventh annual western conference on Feb. 22 and 23 in Calgary.

ACI started in 2004 with marine cargo and in 2006 expanded to include air freight. This year, the program will expand again to include all aspects of the supply chain including carriers, importers, freight forwarders.

Proceviat says the days of just filling a container and shipping it off are over, and it’s essential the cargo information gets to the border in advance, electronically.

"We need to get better and smarter at what we do and the way to do that is to leverage technology," he adds Proceviat. "You all have to work together now, instead of ‘I’ll do my part and someone else will do theirs.’"

ACI will be rolled out in stages and hard enforcement will not start until 18 months after the program kicks in. The reason CBSA is slowly rolling out the program is to help ensure compliance once enrolment becomes mandatory, and because it’s going to cost the supply chain money to implement.

During the first year participation in ACI will be voluntary, and informed compliance will follow for the next six months. Carriers will be the first to join ACI this spring, followed by freight forwarders in the summer 2011, and importers in the spring of 2012. 

Compliance with ACI will require more than
just a simple upgrade to your internal system

"We know this is going to cost money, there’s no ifs, ands, or buts, when you have to send data electronically," says Proceviat.

"There are no new data elements we’re introducing," he adds. "The difference is we’re looking for them in advance, electronically."

FedEx Canada has already adjusted their procedures to accommodate ACI in their air freight business, and Renate Jalbert, managing director of regulatory affairs with FedEx Canada, agrees that it does cost money.

"We developed an internal system; it was a very expensive cost," she says. "It has very complex data exchange and requirements."

Compliance with ACI required FedEx to do more than upgrade their internal system. The company put in new policies and procedures to audit information, created a new package acceptance policy, training, customer awareness, process management, failure analysis and resolution, admissibility, and compliance management.

"It’s really game changing. It has to be absolutely accurate, all the time, otherwise the goods stop," says Jalbert.

When information is not accurate, it has to be dealt with quickly to keep goods moving, and since trucks do not just run a 9-5 schedule, FedEx has full-time people working 24 hours to manage messages from customs.

Top error categories of information FedEx sees are: vague description, dangerous goods, missing/invalid info like province/city, postal codes, or service codes.

Jalbert says vague information on cargo type, or putting "see invoice" just doesn’t cut it anymore.

"The goal is to keep the freight moving," she notes. "All of this is about accuracy, all the time."

Keeping the freight moving will require good communication between suppliers to ensure the quality and accuracy of information is acceptable, says Jalbert.

"It is game changing; planning and understanding is important," she adds.