It was a proposal that made truckers and logistics planners on both sides of the border shudder: in January, customs officials in the United States floated a proposal to require the electronic submission of cargo data four hours before a truck is loaded in Canada for shipment to the United States, and 24 hours prior to loading a truck in the United States destined for Canada.

The idea, roundly called “unworkable” in the most polite terms, was taken off the table in February.
Nevertheless, the U.S. Customs Service-now amalgamated into the U.S. Bureau of Customs & Border Protection, or CBP-is compelled under the Trade Act of 2002 to put in place a system of electronic pre-notification for all cargo entering and leaving the United States. CBP published a revamped pre-notification proposal in July, with the expectation of having it up and running early next year. This time, truckers say they can live with it.

The CBP says it will rely on existing electronic clearance systems to accept critical data for inbound freight, chiefly the Pre-Arrival Processing System (PAPS) and especially Free and Secure Trade (FAST). Electronic notification of a FAST-approved shipment will be required 30 minutes before it reaches the border. For shipments using PAPS (and in-bond reporting via Automated Broker Interface), the timeframe is one hour. Note that the clock will start ticking not when the data was sent, but when whatever automated system you use has verified that it has been received.

CBP would then send cargo data through an automated targeting system linked to various law enforcement databases. The agency says many shipments today are admitted into the country without this level of screening because so much cargo data is contained on paper. As a consequence, the process for assessing risks associated with these shipments can’t be done prior to their arrival at the border, which makes cross-border movement slower and less efficient.

Indeed, one of the challenges for CBP in 2004 is to phase out Border Release Advance Screening (BRASS), the old Line Release system, which relies heavily on the presentation of paper manifests, invoices, and C-4 bar code labels. CBP is developing an automated manifest system for trucks like it has for rail, but in the interim will process BRASS with some additional requirements or modifications in order to increase the security of the transaction.

In the meantime, Canada Customs and Revenue Agency has unveiled its own pre-notification timeframes for imported goods. Data concerning truck shipments must be sent to Customs one hour prior to arrival at the border, except for FAST shipments, which won’t require advanced reporting.

“Importers and trucking companies pay attention to how efficiently the freight flows; I hope with electronic pre-notification we’ll see more investment in the way the data flows,” says Peter Luit, president and chief executive of Livingston International, the Toronto-based customs broker. “Our worst-case scenario is a driver who parks his rig just before the border and walks into our office with a whole wad of paper. I feel bad for the guy, because it’s not his fault. Clearing quickly and without breaking any rules requires collaboration more than it does dedicated lanes for FAST traffic or whatever. The real infrastructure investment has to happen in the IT departments of the shipper, carrier, and customs broker. All three need to be able to handle details about the shipment electronically if loads are to clear quickly. Next year will be a real test.”

To read the U.S. proposal, go to www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import and click on “Advance Electronic Information.” For the Canadian proposal, visit CCRA’s site at www.ccra-adrc.gc.ca/customs/
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