WASHINGTON — The number of companies certified to file electronic manifests (e-Manifests) under with U.S. Customs and Border Protection under the ACE program tripled last week, from 41 to 126 companies.

There are currently 113 truck carriers and 15 service bureaus certified to use Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) to file e-Manifests.

“This puts adoption of the e-Manifest capability on the fast track and will help ensure smooth operations when we make e-Manifest mandatory later this year,” said CBP Cargo Systems Program Office Executive Director Louis Samenfink. “We are now seeing private industry service providers become certified to file e-Manifests through EDI for their clients, which quickly opens the process to a whole new range of carriers who use third party services to submit their CBP filings.”

ACE participation growing rapidly

ACE allows truck carriers rolling up to certain border crossings such as Detroit, Port Huron and Blaine, to submit an e-Manifest through the web-based ACE Secure Data Portal or via CBP approved Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) procedures. With a one-screen system, filing is easy and data can be stored and reused, requiring less data entry time for truck carriers.

When a truck approaches the primary booth, transponder technology similar to that of a toll-paying device may be used to signal the truck’s arrival. The e-Manifest is automatically retrieved along with the matching pre-filed entries, in-bond requests and other release declarations for the CBP officer to view and process. In addition, by establishing and using an ACE portal account, carriers can track the status of their trips and generate a wide variety of reports. This enables carriers to identify trends to plan future courses of action and achieve better results for their company.

CBP does not charge fees to file e-Manifests, but carriers may choose to have certified service providers file submissions on their behalf.

A total of $348.8 million in payments were collected via January 24, 2006 monthly statements, representing almost 17 percent of adjusted total statement collections.

Earlier this month, the Canadian Trucking Alliance and the American Trucking Associations convinced CBP to back off increased enforcement of ACE, which was supposed to be stepped up on Feb. 28. That would have meant that carriers not participating in the truck manifest component of ACE would have been denied entry to the U.S. if required cargo data was not successfully sent to CBP in advance of arrival at the border.

Carriers were concerned about the amount of time required to become ACE ready, uncertainty over the need to obtain ACE accounts, and various technical issues surrounding system functionality, CTA said.

The truck manifest component of ACE will become mandatory at some point in 2006, though CBP has not yet announced a firm date.

For information about how to establish an ACE account, e-mail CBP at acenow@dhs.gov. Also, check for the latest updates on ACE application information and future notices announcing ports requiring mandatory usage of e-Manifests on the CBP Web site at www.cbp.gov/modernization/.