ACE electronic manifest program exanded to Arizona, Washington, and North Dakota
Trucking companies will have to comply starting in 2007, but meanwhile CBP is opening up more ports of entry to the program; shippers provide advance manifests for CBP review; expedited inspection is the main benefit
Here is some good news for the trucking industry. The Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), the successor program to the Automated Commercial System, is exanding operations in January 2007 to all ports of entry in the states of Washington and Arizona, as well as selected ports in North Dakota. Under the program, shipping companies provide Customs and Border Protection (CBP) with electronic manifests before approaching the border. The information is then processed against government data bases, the idea being to distinguish between mundane and suspicious cargo long before agents encounter it, leading to better security and shorter wait times. In 2007, all trucks will be required to use the ACE system, and the intent is to eventually expand it to process air, rail, and sea cargo. Full deployment will cost an estimated $3 billion.
ACE is currently deployed at 49 out of the country’s 99 ports of ventry, and cooperation has been high. More than 12,000 e-manifests were filed in September alone. “We are very pleased with the continued growth in e-manifest usage,” said Lou Samenfink, the program’s office director. “With every company that makes the switch to e-manifests now, it makes it that much easier when we make e-manifests mandatory next year.” The next land ports where ACE will be mandatory are in Alaska, California, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Texas and Vermont, as well as the remaining ports in North Dakota.
-read more in Chris Strohm’s National Journal’s Technology Daily report
