Agents applaud JIA's same-day clearance record

Alan Peat THE SLOW pace of customs clearance procedures at Johannesburg International Airport (JIA) - which had forwarders champing at the bit, especially over the festive season as import cargoes waited up to five days to clear has been speeded up. "It has improved one hundred percent," Ršhlig Grindrod's airfreight import manager, Tommy Reddy told FTW. "We are even getting same-day clearances. "Even the Easter weekend backlog was cleared professionally." And the "teaming effort" - introduced by customs just before Christmas, and targeted as one of the causes of the slow-down - now seems to be up to par. Said Reddy: "They seem to have sorted themselves out, and it's now running smoothly." Edward Little, executive director of the SA Association of Freight Forwarders (SAAFF), agreed. It has certainly improved over the festive season chaos, he told FTW, where a combination of the new teaming programme, temporary staff, and the seasonal surge were not designed to give confidence in the system. This improvement, he added, was revealed amongst those forwarders who have on-line clearance systems with customs. "They are now getting same-day clearances," Little said. "That's as it should be." He attributed much of this to the "professional efforts" of Hennie Marais, customs project member from head office, who was seconded to JIA to sort out the whole issue.