EDI milestone will slash border delays

April 1 represents an electronic
milestone for SA Revenue
Service Customs.
That’s the date on which all
clearances on the Botswana, Lesotho,
Namibia and Swaziland (BLNS)
borders will go EDI – and no-one is
more enthusiastic than Compu-Clearing
marketing manager Werner Pretorius.
“All cross-border shipments will have
to be framed and sent to customs before
the haulier arrives at the border – which
will cut down on queues and streamline
Customs clearance significantly.”
And the ruling applies to all users –
whether they’re framing 20 or
3 000 entries.
It’s also generated a lot more business
for Compu-Clearing which is signing up
new customers on a daily basis,
says Pretorius.
“It’s not a new programme for us.
We’ve offered it all along and it’s a
very simple system to operate. It takes
customers five minutes to complete
and send to Customs, and ten minutes
for clearance. Once the cargo has been
cleared, it’s free to move – a huge
improvement on what used to be a
delay of sometimes up to three hours at
the border.”
While customers are benefiting from
no delays, there are also huge benefits
for Customs.
“There’s no longer any need for them
to capture data, which translates into
no finger faults for road transporters.
“They now know that once it’s through
to customs and released they can send
their driver with a smile and there won’t
be any hassles.”
It will also cut down significantly
on corruption – no passing of bribes to
ensure that a consignment is cleared.
The Compu-Clearing product is a
modular system which enables the
customers to sign up for the BLNS
system only. “And we charge on a
transaction basis working on a sliding
scale – so the more they frame the
cheaper it gets and that’s how we can
do business with small, medium and
large guys. The small operator doing
maybe 1000 entries a month gets all the
benefits of the system, as does the guy
doing 3 000 entries a month. But
in each case, you only pay for what
you use.”
Compu-Clearing has signed up over
30 customers since February, and a
lot of these are to do with the BLNS
system, says Pretorius.
“It will change the way people are
doing business. And although it will
increase costs for transporters – it’s a
minimal amount which they will work
into their documentation fees.
“The benefit,” says Pretorius, “will
far outweigh the costs involved.”
It’s required a lot of training, and a
change of mind-set among customers,
but with weekly and daily training
schedules both online and face-to-face
available, Pretorius is confident of a
smooth transition on April 1 for
Compu-Clearing customers.