ISSUE 1 2011
NEWS
European air cargo carriers are adopting a low profile in announcing details of any surcharges they plan to implement following the recent introduction of new EU customs import requirements, reports Phil Hastings. The changed import rules,
which became effective on 1 January, require carriers across all transport modes to file details of EU-bound cargo to the relevant customs authorities ahead of shipment. In contrast with the airfreight sector, many container shipping companies had already issued statements detailing their charges for doing that work – typically a basic surcharge of US$25 per bill of lading and $40 for any amendments made after an original submission has been filed with customs. However, as at mid-January,
major European air cargo carriers had still either yet to decide what surcharges to implement, if any, or were only revealing their individual charges in letters to customers. For example, a spokesperson
for British Airways World Cargo stated that: “Following the introduction of the new EU customs rules, BA World Cargo is currently undertaking a thorough review of the
implication of these changes before coming to a conclusion with regards to additional customer requirements. Our review is ongoing and so no final decisions have been made in this regard.” At Italian all-cargo airline Cargoitalia, commercial director Roberto Gilardoni said in many instances, the carrier anticipated that shippers or their agents would have the ability to perform the necessary data collection and submission “in which case there will be no additional charge”. However, where shippers or forwarders could not do that work, the airline’s handling agents or Cargoitalia itself would have to do it, “regrettably the cost of the additional work at origin and destination will need to be charged back to the shipper. But we will pre-advise our standard charges, which are currently being decided, and they will be kept as low as possible,” he stated. Other major European airlines
have decided what surcharges to levy but have only detailed them in letters to customers. Industry sources suggested that this was due to a desire to avoid any risk of being accused of collusion and subsequently hit
Finland leads as Kewill goes live
Trade systems specialist Kewill said on 21 January that it had gone live with ICS and was successfully exchanging its customers’ real-time data with customs authorities in Germany and Austria. Connectivity for all remaining European countries, including Belgium, France, Italy and the UK, was scheduled to follow in rapid succession. Kewill said it had used its experience to rise to the difficult challenge of ensuring that systems were compliant with various countries’ systems through its suite of electronic customs software solutions; CustomsXchange, Zabis and Air Cargo Pool. With each individual country issuing separate specifications for ICS, Kewill has worked closely with its network of partners across Europe and local experts. Vice-president for customs in
Kewill’s EMEA region, Ronald de Vries said that the uptake of ICS varied widely according to country and mode of transport. “Technically, it’s working in most countries, but all companies are
struggling with connectivity. Different countries in the ICS scheme (which also include non-EU Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein) are offering varying grace periods ranging from two to six months. At the time of going to
press, Finland was leading the field with 100,000 ICS entries a week – around a third of the total. Other countries were a long way behind; the UK and Germany were doing around 35,000 declarations a week, said De Vries, which in the UK’s case amounted to 12% of the total. He added that Kewill was
offering solutions to help its customers validate their data before offering it to ICS – for example by ensuring thatpostcode information was correct. “In the past, having correct postcodes was such a big deal but now it needs to be correct. He added some airlines that had previously selected other software suppliers were now turning to Kewill because it could offer a Europe- wide solution.
with legal action by government authorities, as recently happened over fuel surcharges. Lufthansa Cargo stated: “in
the light of previous cartel issues we do not openly comment on prices and surcharges”. One customer said he had been informed that Lufthansa Cargo planned to implement related surcharges of €1 per house airwaybill for electronic transmission of data and €10 for
manual data entry or manual correction of data entered by agents, effective February 1. Similarly, Air France-KLM
Cargo and sister carrier Martinair Cargo issued a standard letter to customers indicating that for “complete and correct” messages transmitted electronically via the carriers’ systems, their standard CG (electronic processing) fee of €2.10 per house airwaybill would be applied, while filings involving
manual data entry or corrections would incur their standard CC (manual data entry) charge of €10, effective January 1. At DHL Express, David Wilson,
senior vice president sales Europe, said the EU customs changes had not had a major impact on that organisation’s air express activities as it was already collecting as much shipment detail as possible to facilitate ‘clear in the air’
3 Air shippers in the dark over ICS surcharges
with customs, using electronic communications. “So, the new rules have not involved as much change for us as they have for many other business units. There has been some additional work, for example we have had to slightly adjust the format for sending information to customs, but we will not be bringing in any surcharges relating to that.”
More ICS on page 5
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