U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports it has received nearly 13,000 electronic manifests in September, a big jump over the 1,000 filed in April.
E-manifests are one component of the federal Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) program, which will eventually be rolled out to track international trade via truck, air, rail and sea cargo.
ACE is currently deployed at 49 of 99 land ports. It has already been rolled out to all land ports along the southern border. CBP will begin implementing a mandatory e-manifest policy on a port-by-port basis beginning in 2007. Notices will be published in the Federal Register at least 90 days before implementation.
“Every company that makes the switch to e-manifests now will avoid the rush and resulting delays when we begin to make e-manifests mandatory next year,” said Cargo Systems Program Office Executive Director Lou Samenfink.
Truck carriers can submit an e-manifest through the web-based ACE secure data portal or via a CBP-approved electronic data interchange (EDI). Truck carriers can use third parties to transmit e-manifests as well.
A list of EDI software providers is available at www.cbp.gov/modernization
