(Deanna Pagnan – Canadian Trucking Alliance)
Implementation postponed by one month to Oct. 31
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has announced that it is again delaying the implementation of the ACI eManifest program for the highway mode, this time by one month from September 30th to October 31st, 2010. ACI eManifest was initially slated to roll out in June of this year, but was pushed to September to allow CBSA to ensure the integrity of the program given the volumes of data being transmitted by highway carriers. According to CBSA the reason for the most recent delay is related to the software of other commercial programs, not ACI.
According to Jason Proceviat, CBSA’s eManifest Director, “While ACI is ready to go, we bundle some commercial programs together, and there are a few delays from other areas that need to be addressed before we can go live.”
Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) CEO David Bradley said "the trucking industry understands the challenges involved in implementing such a complex program, but we are frustrated by the latest delay.” He said he hopes CBSA will meet the new implementation date. “Carriers are seeking improved efficiencies at the border,” he said. “This includes electronic transmission of data through ACI, and we are looking forward to implementation sooner rather than later. We want to avoid the stop-start pattern that characterized implementation of the ACE eManifest program in the US.”
There is a keen interest from the trucking industry in getting the program rolled out. Carriers have been preparing for ACI eManifest for a number of years now. In fact, close to a hundred carriers approached CBSA just to participate in the early testing of ACI. CTA has been working closely on the development of the program and believes it will have a beneficial impact on cross-border efficiency.
