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Shipments won't fly without an accurate data.
Medium and small air cargo forwarders must embrace digitisation in advance of new regulations, TIACA has warned – otherwise, it says, shipments simply “won’t fly”.
Doug Brittin, secretary general of the air cargo association, said: “If there are SMEs still in the manual world, it is not going to work. At the very least they should think about getting data to the carrier electronically.”
He said ground handlers would also need to be “up to speed on the data”, adding: “But the biggest onus will be on forwarders. If they don’t have accurate data about a shipment, it won’t get on a plane.”
Mr Brittin last week attended the fifth session of the ICAO and World Customs Organization (WCO) Joint Working Group on Advance Cargo. While the US, EU and Canada are agreed that pre-loading advance cargo information (PLACI) is key, the group realises that much of the detail, particularly concerning aviation security, is missing and there is insufficient commonality between regulators.
“It became evident that it was a bigger issue than we had all thought,” he said. “We are starting to realise that there’s more that we don’t know.”
The EU is ready with its regulations, with the new Customs Code coming in May and pre-filing PRECISE (pre-loading consignment information for secure entry) information beginning in June – although full implementation is not expected until 2020.
The US is still undergoing its ACAS (Air Cargo Advance Screening) pilot programme, by which carriers and/or forwarders may link directly to the US CBP system and submit a subset of data elements (shipper name and address, consignee name and address, pieces, weight, commodity as listed on the HAWB). Canada has no timeline for rule changes as yet.
“We have been encouraging joint collaboration between the three regulators, but we know we are not ready for a framework document,” explained Mr Brittin. Read more
Source: THE LOAD STAR
