OTTAWA, (Jan. 24, 2005) — Canada’s largest trucking
association wants U.S. Customs to reevaluate its
advance cargo reporting requirements and how the security agency assesses penalties for the rule.

The Canadian Trucking Alliance says U.S. Customs and
Border Protection should review deadlines for driver
security screening, adding that non-FAST truck drivers
using the popular BRASS line release program face the
prospect of being denied entry to the U.S. by the end
of the month.

CTA is a proponent of the FAST program, but complains
that the system can’t handle the flood of
applications. There is no realistic way, says CTA,
that enough drivers will be ready to handle the volume
of freight moving by BRASS by the January 30th
deadline.

CTA says 70,000 of the 87,000 or so drivers involved
in cross-border trucking have applied for FAST
registration, but to date, less than 30,000 of those
drivers have completed the process, leaving more than
40,000 drivers at various stages of processing.

“Since it is presently taking 8 to 12 weeks for the
governments to fully process an application, the
potential for a serious disruption to trade is very
real,” CTA chief David Bradley said in a press
release.

He urges U.S. and Canadian security officials need to
extend the January 30th deadline for full enforcement,
speed up the implementation process for portable
enrollment centres, and review the staffing and hours
of service at permanent enrollment centres.

CTA is also calling upon CBP to examine the procedures
under which it assesses monetary penalties for
non-compliance with advance cargo information rules.

The request comes days after TodaysTrucking.com
reported carriers are starting to see minimum fines of
$5,000 for not following the pre-note requirement to
the letter of the law. (Read full story here:
(www.todaystrucking.com/displayarticle.cfm?ID=3693).

The rules require non-FAST carriers to submit
Pre-Arrival Processing System (PAPS) data at least an
hour before arrival. FAST-approved shipments are
allowed more flexibility and carriers must pre-notify
CBP of the load no later than 30 minutes before the
driver arrives at the border.

Carriers who are getting into trouble claim they’ve
forwarded their data on-time, but it seems they
haven’t confirmed its arrival before pulling up to
U.S. Customs.

“Most of the confusion for the carrier community is that they didn’t understand that even if they fax it an hour before, that still didn’t end their obligation,” Debbie Dent, president of Customs services provider and consultant D. Dent & Associates. “They are the one responsible for verifying that it exists in Customs’ system at least
one hour prior to (arrival). The clock starts ticking
when CBP sends an electronic message back to the
broker acknowledging that the data they received is
acceptable.”

CTA says carriers are being fined over something they
can’t control. While some carriers admit they’ve been
able to get the charges reduced over the phone, CTA
claims others who try and get CBP to drop the fines
end up in a lengthy penalty mitigation process.
“There have to be sanctions in place to ensure
compliance, but carriers should not have to bear the
cost of other parties’ mistakes,” says Bradley. “A
better mechanism is needed to allow carriers to know
when customs entries have been filed by brokers, and
who is responsible for violations. This should be
worked out before CBP issues further penalties.”

Bradley says he raised this matter with the outgoing
U.S. homeland security secretary Tom Ridge last month
in Detroit and received a “favourable reception” at
that time.