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.