e-Manifest continues to cause confusion. We continue to see a large number of customer service calls to our support centers.

At the recent Customs Electronic Security Action Committee (CESAC) meeting, CBSA confirmed that the ocean carriers are having a large problem with E-Manifest and are suffering from as much confusion as the NVO / Forwarding community. One of the key differences that causes confusion is that the first filing on any MB/L / HB/L group sets the foundation for the “correct” filing information. This means that if the NVO / Forwarder files the HB/L before the carrier files the MB/L (which is what happens in 70% or more of the circumstances), then the MB/L has to match the HB/L. This is causing confusion because previously in ACI, in AMS and AFR, the ocean carrier’s MB/L is treated as the primary document, even if it has an error.

The key to resolving this is communication between the ocean carrier and the NVO / Forwarder at both origin and destination to resolve the error, so that the two documents can achieve a match, and the cargo can move forward.

We continue to recommend that destination handling offices / agents should be given access to our system so that they can make amendments in real time as they work through resolving error related issues with the local ocean carrier offices. Feeding requests back to origin stations is too time consuming and hard to track.

Other key areas we see repeatedly are:

a) Sublocation Codes (Facilities with identification codes)

b) Bonding requirements

c) Co-Loading vs Master Loading (who is doing what and what are the responsibilities for each party)

Trade Tech will be hosting a number of regional Zoom Conferences over the next few weeks to review these issues with anyone that wishes to join. These conferences will be announced shortly via email and a listing will be available on our web site.

You can also view our written explanations of these key items under E-Manifest Frequently Asked Questions.