TORONTO, (April, 4, 2005) — The Canadian Trucking Alliance says it has convinced U.S. Customs to lighten policy on pre-arrival electronic cargo information rules that Canadian carriers believe were unfairly targeting them.

CTA says Customs and Border Protection will absolve carriers who receive fines for non-compliance if they can prove that they have successfully submitted the required shipment information to their U.S. Customhouse brokers.

As TodaysTrucking.com reported in an exclusive story earlier this year (www.todaystrucking.com/displayarticle.cfm?ID=3693), carriers were being slapped with fines ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 for not properly filing paperwork or advancing it to U.S. Customs within the acceptable timeframe required by Customs and Border Protection. (Non-FAST carriers have to submit data at least an hour before arrival at the border; while FAST-approved shipments are allowed 30 minutes).

However, many carriers indicated they were receiving fines because of errors created by custom brokers or shippers, or even if they arrived before CBP had a chance to process the data. Most of the failures were due to jammed or overloaded fax machines, incomplete documentation, credit issues between the broker and the client, and massive increases in the volume of work for the brokers.

In response, the CTA launched a nation-wide survey that measured the scope of monetary fines being handed to carriers for not being in full compliance with the rules. The survey found that fines have been issued to the carrier, despite fault clearly resting elsewhere in the supply chain. Furthermore, CTA says it found that a number of carriers were not fully aware of the rules, or were unsure of their responsibilities under the regulation. Many of those companies have now launched internal educational programs to improve compliance.

“With this announcement, carriers who can now prove to CBP that they have successfully submitted the required shipment information to their US Customhouse brokers will not be issued penalties for non-compliance,” said CTA CEO David Bradley in a statement.