With enforcement of U.S. Customs' advance manifest rule beginning February 2, APL, a global transportation company, urges shippers bringing goods into the United States for a final effort to achieve full compliance.
The rule requires detailed manifest information to be filed with U.S. Customs at least 24 hours before goods are loaded on vessels bound for the U.S.
APL acting CEO, Ron Widdows, said the effort in recent weeks by shippers, importers and carriers had seen a dramatic increase in compliance across all APL's sailings for the U.S. Most of APL's mainline load ports for U.S.-bound cargo were now in excess of 90% compliance, with some in full compliance over the last two weeks.
"There has been a concerted effort across the board, which is encouraging," he said. "There have been concerns around some major ports, but we are seeing a huge improvement, particularly at Hong Kong, where compliance has moved from less than 60 per cent of our customers to in excess of 80 per cent over the last three weeks," he said.
"But there is still a gap to close, and the burden of compliance -- and the impact of non-compliance -- ultimately falls on shippers."
From February 2, U.S. Customs will not allow carriers to load any U.S.-bound cargo if it had not been fully manifested by the specified cut-off times.
APL's sophisticated e-commerce platform was an advantage for customers because it enabled faster data collection and transmission, and greater accuracy, which meant later manifest cut-off times. There was a strong focus on those tools, he said.
For more information, visit www.apl.com.