IT\\\


As if European airfreight companies didn’t have enough to worry about, what with UCC and other regulatory changes, they - and everyone else shipping airfreight to the US - have a new ACAS, or Air Cargo Advanced Screening, system to look forward to. Changes to ACAS will require data for all airfreight consignments to be submitted to the US authorities before the shipment leaves its place of origin, rather than while the goods are in the air.


“ACAS marks a real paradigm


shiſt for airfreight forwarders, and raises so many questions,” emphasises Brandon Fried, head of the US Air Forwarders Association. “Who


does the


filing? Can forwarders rely on the carrier to provide this information for them - and at what cost? How far in advance will the carrier need the data? If the carrier makes a mistake, who gets blamed? “If


the forwarder chooses


to do the filing itself, what are the message protocols? What are the IT connectivity issues? What happens if a ‘do not load’ message is returned because the US authorities want further screening? additional


Who does screening? If


the the


European export agent is not an Authorised Economic Operator, it will not be allowed to do the screening; what then?” Large


Brandon Fried – new screening regime is a paradigm shiſt


New phone


system for Europa


Europa Worldwide Logistics is investing £100,000 in new new communications for its UK sites. Expected to be complete and in place by May 2015, the system will also enable telephony to be integrated with the company’s new £1.7 million Leonardo IT system announced earlier this year. IT director Richard Litchfield,


said: “The introduction of our new communications system takes us one step closer to achieving seamless integration across the business. Implementing a centralised solution across two sites will provide us with a totally resilient solution that is reliable, flexible and can grow with us.”


and meet US, European and any other requirements consistently and


effectively. As Moehle, Lothar director air security


standardisation at Schenker, points out, they have the data in their system anyway; all they have to do is send it earlier, and make sure they don’t include any consignment in a pallet or ULD until it is cleared by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). But some multi-nationals say


multi-national


forwarders have an advantage in that they have offices all over the world, so they can ensure all branches work in the same way


even with their own offices to rely on, changes to ACAS will cost them money. “ACAS has required investment. We had to dedicate one full-time employee to security issues, including ACAS, and increase IT support,” explains Richard Zablocki, VP trade lane management, transatlantic for Ceva Logistics. “Our IT provider, Descartes, charges to convert all messages into the right


format and the


airlines are already increasing their security surcharge in anticipation of this extra work and the potential for problems


Issue 8 2014 - Freight Business Journal


27 US screening: more questions than answers


like the need to hold a shipment. It’s hard to pass on these extra costs to the shippers.” Smaller forwarders who work


with overseas partners don’t have the luxury of being able to dictate to overseas offices how to handle exports; they have to trust their overseas partners to provide correct data and screen cargo in a way that meets US security requirements. But, asks Fried, can they be sure the overseas agent is trustworthy? And, he adds, there is an even


bigger issue: what happens if CBP sees the shipment as a threat? Does the forwarder want to be in the business of resolving this? Does handling that shipment put them in harm’s way? Forwarders in the US are


waiting for an official notice of the proposed new rule, which should be released before the end of the year. It will not come into effect until late 2015, aſter the required consultation period. But whenever it is implemented, it will require more investment in IT, as data will have to be


New video highlights logistics work


A group of logistics experts have launched a video that highlights their work to help deliver smarter and more sustainable freight transport


across North West


Europe. Through the EU-funded Weastflows (West and East freight flows) project, partners from private and public sectors and researchers are undertaking a series of inter-connected activities and practical demonstration projects using innovative ICT solutions. They aim to identify challenges and opportunities


to improve


freight movement, and encourage greener supply chains


across


Europe and beyond. Ian Short, chief executive at the


Institute for Sustainability in the UK and Weastflows partner, said: “Latest EU figures show freight transport is increasing by 2.5% per annum. This means more


pressure on existing transport systems, more congestion and more pollution. Through smart solutions and real-time testing, Weastflows partners are working to


improve freight journeys


and show how a shiſt to more sustainable transport modes, including rail and sea, can help reduce environmental impact and maintain the region’s position as a global freight hub.” The video provides an


overview of the key activity taking place across Europe including developing the first intermodal route planner that calculates the fastest freight route by road, rail and sea against estimated journey costs across Europe; trials of an integrated online tracking system that gives shippers ‘real-time’ information about where their product is; and analysing data from across six European countries to


create an interactive mapping tool, which will allow users to identify under-used networks and traffic bottlenecks across all modes of transport, and highlight where alternative routes can be used. Chief executive of CRITT


Transport et Logistique in France and Weastflows lead partner, Robin Poté, added: “The project’s results will be shared with industry organisations, private sector businesses and transport authorities to help inform and influence the direction of future freight and logistics policy at the European level. By sharing the learning, Weastflows aims to help the region maintain its competitiveness whilst encouraging innovation and sustainable economic growth.” The video is at: http://www.


weastflows.eu/news-archive/ multi-media/


Boost for TIACA’s IT expertise


John DeBenedette, MD of forwarder IT platform Worldwide Information Network (WIN) has joined the TIACA board to boost its technical expertise DeBenedette, who has 25 years of experience in the forwarding sector,


will work with the TIACA team to push for wider adoption of e-freight and to support the Association’s membership drive. He worked for DB Schenker for seven years and spent 11 years building the INTTRA global container platform.


His current project, WIN,


is a freight industry platform specifically developed for independent forwarders to collaborate electronically with each other, and with air, sea, and freight carriers.


supplied electronically. As Ceva has already seen, there are extra costs to carriers and to any intermediary which translates messages into the right format to be read by each carrier and/ or government authority. And some companies, particularly smaller ones, may need to purchase or develop a whole new system. “We were lucky because introduced


we all a new


global operational system accommodating


the new


and upcoming legislative requirements in Europe already, and are now rolling it out around the world,” Zablocki comments. “But going paperless actually costs us money: it might help the carriers - and some have quoted a saving of 38 US cents per shipment - but airlines do not share the benefit with forwarders. We now oſten have to carry out double data entry as each carrier wants information in a different way - despite any IATA or other standards that are meant to be adopted.”


Ceva’s Richard Zablocki – going paperless will cost us


No wonder e-AWBs have been


so slow to take off. Fried agrees. “Our members oſten complain that one carrier or shipper wants to use XML and they have HTML, or vice versa, or they use different languages. The World Customs Organisation lists seven data elements; we can’t have different countries doing different things, as they do now: we should be able to enter data once only. Before we can go to no paper, let’s go to less paper. We agree paperless is the way of the future - but how do we get there?” How, indeed?


Dutch take important step towards e-BoL


The Netherlands has become the first country in the world to offer digital signing for receipt of goods by mobile phone, according to the European Shippers’ Council. The Dutch Shippers’ Council (EVO), Transport and Logistics Netherlands and the NBB Dutch Inland Shipping Bureau have put together the necessary infrastructure. ESC says it is watching this development closely, hoping the rest of Europe can follow from example. Logistics facilitation firm


Beurtvaartadres is currently developing the


first reliable


standardised digital bill of lading, TransFollow and recently displayed, at the ICT & Logistiek trade fair in Utrecht, mobile signing for received goods based on international standards. A trial will


begin in December with a selected number of logistics service providers, senders and recipients. Similar systems


allowing


consumers to pay by smartphone already exist, ESC points out.. In many cases a signed bill of


lading is needed for invoicing and to comply with (tax-related) laws and regulations, and currently businesses have to wait for the paper version with all the signatures to be returned to it, but TransFollow will allow this to happen in real time. Recipients also get an overview of the exact timing of all the goods to be received. Currently businesses use


millions of paper bills of lading, packing slips and checklists every year and the new system could save €675 million a year.


Another option for Virgin customers


Virgin Atlantic Cargo customers another can now book shipments online by launching e-bookings based on Unisys’ Cargo Portal Services (CPS) technology. CPS is delivered via Soſtware-as-as-Service hosted by Unisys.


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