13 December 2004

Truck Manifest E-Filing Begins Testing

The following is excerpted from the 10 December 2004 edition of “The Journal of Commerce”.

WASHINGTON -- Selected motor carriers on Sunday will begin to test the Automated Truck Manifest System on the U.S.-Canadian border at Blaine, Wash.

The test -- Truck AMS will not be available for all carriers until the middle of 2005 -- is a milestone for the trucking industry. It is the first time that truckers will be able to transmit cargo manifests to Customs and Border Protection electronically. Other modes have had electronic manifest capability for several years.

It is also the first manifest system that has been programmed within Customs' Automated Commercial Environment.

"We're very enthusiastic. It's rewarding to see something begin that we have been working on for years," said Jevon Jameson, manager of administration and customs compliance at ABF Freight Systems in Fort Smith, Ark.

Previously truckers had to rely on an array of paper-based systems for clearing cargo at the border. Jameson said that now the company will be able to transmit the cargo data to Customs, and the officer at the primary booth will have it on his computer monitor when the truck arrives.

"We hope that the speed in which we clear the border is reduced," Jameson said. Truck AMS also could shorten the lines of trucks waiting to cross.

There will still be delays. For example, truckers still will have manually secure bond coverage for shipments in most cases. Automating the bonding process will be introduced in ACE in the future.

Jameson said that having an ACE account reduces the amount of data that the carrier has to transmit to ACE. Each truck gets an identification number that allows the computer to access such information as the truck's registration, insurance, and the identity of the driver.

If the Blaine pilot project is successful, Customs intends to introduce Truck AMS at Buffalo, N.Y., in mid-January.