New forwarders come on board as Customs EDI project gets a firm thumbs up

THERE'S BEEN strong praise from the private sector for the EDI (electronic data interchange) efforts at Customs.
The Shippers' Council has been very impressed with the current attitude and developments at Customs on this (EDI) project, said the council's executive director Nolene Lossau. Deadlines are being met, and Customs have been willing to listen to input from ourselves and other interested parties.
These words being spoken on behalf of over 50 members of the council, shipping in excess of 90-million tons of imports and exports a year, are a happy change from many previous comments on government efforts from private industry and commerce.
They follow test runs between Customs and certain companies in the freight industry trying out the basic systems necessary for the eventual transformation of Customs clearance into a completely electronic affair.
Our first test involved Ship Shape, Grindrod International Freight, and freight computer system specialists Compu-Clearing, said Customs director Gavin Collinet.
We expect to have Union Transport coming on-line in our test run in about two-to-three weeks, and Renfreight to follow after another two months.
This initial effort is aimed at electronic shuttling between the Customs and private companies of manifest information - the basis for all EDI clearance - with the ultimate goal of complete electronic clearance and release of all incoming goods.
We have had very good co-operation from Customs on the whole EDI gambit, said Willi Schalk, the Grindrod forwarding group's information technology executive, both from the EDI management team and the technical people.
The company has linked
up its fully-automated information system with Customs on the trial procedure, and these tests have run well to date, Schalk added.
The basic process has been transmitting an EDI message to Grindrod's message processing system the instant
a bill of entry is complete, from where it is routed
directly to Customs - with the release message the return.
We will be starting very soon to move Customs' EDI messages through ZACCS (SA Cargo Community System), said Schalk.