Hiccup over, JIA clearances speed up again

Alan Peat
ALTHOUGH FOR the first two weeks of this month (July) there was a glitch in the electronic clearance system at Johannesburg International Airport (JIA) and average clearing time moved out to the three day mark, it's now working 100%, according to Henry Visser, national airfreight executive for Safcor Panalpina.
Adding to the SA Revenue Services' (SARS) list of problems is the new warehouse information management system (WIMS). This, customs hopes, will be ready for October launch. But according to Visser a lot of things have not been ratified yet, so that timing is still questionable.
"But they are now getting their EDI (electronic data interchange) up to standard," he told FTW, with an indication being that the new clearing system has got average clearing time back down to about three hours after its hiccup.
Visser is also taken with the new attitude at SARS.
"During the problem period, we at Safcor met them separately, and they were very obliging," Visser said. "From the response we've had, their attitude has changed noticeably Ð and it's something we are very pleased with."
What is now needed is to get some more of the 600 eligible operations into the accreditation list for electronic clearance.
Some 193 have already been approved but they're all mostly agents, according to Edward Little, executive director of the SA Association of Freight Forwarders (SAAFF).
There's still an awful dearth of road freight hauliers and they need to get their names down so that the new system can work to full advantage