Update on 1/31/2007: Turns out Customs changed the location of the downloadable Trouble Report linked to below. I’ve update the link to reflect this, so it should work again.

If you’d like to get an inside view of Customs’ ACE e-Manifest deployment (and its outstanding issues), look no further than the just released Problem Trouble Report for Electronic Truck Manifest (MS Excel format).

The report lists 100 known issues currently affecting everything from ACE accounts, the ACE web portal, EDI transactions, and more. Note that in the “Status” column, Awaiting IT is short for Awaiting Technical Information.

Fair warning: This thing is pretty dense and technical, but if you’re curious or have been running into any problems using the ACE portal or filing, it might be worth a look.

Customs has released their Enforcement Plan for ACE e-Manifest for Washington, Arizona, and parts of North Dakota. The biggest surprise is no minimum time requirement or "Accepted Status" will be required as a part of the enforcement until at least April 26th, 2007.

This means that as long as you make an e-Manifest attempt, you’re not going to get in trouble.

Send a proper e-Manifest with an accepted message, and you’ll experience very quick processing.

Send an e-Manifest that is rejected, and you’ll at least be allowed to cross the border after clearing up a few details with Customs.

Download the Customs ACE e-Manifest Enforcement Plan (PDF) for all of the details.

You have about a 50% chance of getting the same answer when asking Customs this question. So, here’s the latest answer to the question…

Wednesday, January 10, 2007 7:39:11 PM

“When a FAST Card number is used in an e-Manifest to identify a driver it is all that is necessary to be declared in the e-Manifest.  The FAST information that CBP has on file includes the appropriate travel document information which may have been a passport or other valid travel document that was presented to CBP when the driver applied for the Card.  However the driver should not arrive at the border with only a FAST card.  The driver must have on his person the “valid travel document” that was presented to CBP when he applied for the FAST card.

In short, a FAST Card number is all that is required to be submitted with an e-Manifest but the driver must have a valid travel document on his person when he arrives at the border and that valid travel document is not a FAST card.”

This map has been sitting on my desktop for a couple of weeks now, so I figured it was finally time to get it up. This is Customs’ updated map (as of December 21st, 2006) showing all of the current ACE ports. So basically, you can file e-Manifests for any port listed as deployed, even if they aren’t on the January 25th “mandation” list.

If you want to print the map out, Customs has a downloadable version (PDF) available.

Please indulge me for a moment while I talk a little about one of Greeneye’s services - our ACE e-Manifest Web Portal. We’ve seen almost every e-Manifest application out there, and believe ours is the quickest and easiest way for you to file electronic manifests online. And it’s about to get even better…

Our e-Manifest Web Portal is currently unavailable because of a big update that’s being pushed out. Come Monday, everyone should be seeing a new and improved interface that will make submitting e-Manifests even easier than before. Things are laid out in a better way, and thanks to a newish technology called Ajax, information can be updated on the page without the need for a complete reload. This means the whole experience will flow a lot better and that you’ll be filing e-Manifests more quickly than ever before.

Be on the lookout here for more information once the Portal update is finished. We look forward to showing it off…

I just wanted to give you a quick update on the status of our web portal update that I mentioned in a post last Friday.

Unfortunately, the upgrade is taking longer than expected as we’re running into some bugs and errors with the new application. As we see it though, it’s probably better if we see all of them instead of you, so we’re taking some time to fix problems before we give you the keys and let you drive.

We’re really close, so if everything goes according to schedule, we’ll be up and running tomorrow morning. If you’re currently a Greeneye Portal user, we’ll call or email you with your updated account details.

In the mean time, we’ve found that you’ll have the best experience with the new Portal if you’re using Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox 2 (click either link to start downloading). Internet Explorer 6 will work, but you won’t get all of the ease-of-use improvements if you’re still using that version. Besides the Greeneye Portal though, you’ll have better security and find that other sites will work better too. They’re both free, so go ahead and download one or both of them.

We’ll also be updating our video demos and how-to’s once we go live, so we appreciate your patience while we get everything up-to-date.

US Customs and Border Protection has released a memo detailing their plan for enforcing ACE e-Manifest at ports where it becomes “mandatory” on January 25th. That memo is attached for download and printing (77 KB PDF).

While the memo is pretty long and confusing, there are a few important points:

1. If you can show you’ve attempted to file, you should be fine.
2. Providing a Trip Receipt is evidence of an attempt to file an e-Manifest.
3. The e-Manifest-exempted stuff is pretty rare. Chances are an e-Manifest is required for most or all of your shipments.

Two important points they didn’t mention:

1. If your driver gets stopped, hassled, etc. for an e-Manifest issue, have them politely take the CBP Officer’s name. Provide us with a description of the incident along with the Officer’s name, and we’ll either give you an explanation of what’s going on or work with CBP Supervisors to correct any misunderstanding. This will correct the situation and remove your company name or drivers from the incident.
   There is no way for CBP to correct internal training issues without knowing what happened and who to train. Jim Swanson requested this type of industry cooperation (he’s the person who wrote the attached nationwide memo).
2. If you submit an e-Manifest, it’s not necessarily smooth sailing at the border. You’ll be transmitting a few dozen pieces of information that, if wrong or inconsistent, will require your driver to work with CBP to resolve the problems.
   However, if the stars align and your data is good, you’ll be cruising down the highway.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection gave notice today that ACE e-Manifests will be required for carriers entering land ports in California, New Mexico, and Texas starting April 19, 2007. Here is the text of the email we received from CBP just a little bit ago:

Are you ready?

Today, U.S. Customs & Border Protection issued a Federal Register Notice on the next phase of mandatory advanced electronic manifest for land ports in California, New Mexico and Texas. Effective 90 days from today, truck carriers entering the United States through any ports in these states will be required to present advance electronic cargo information through the ACE Truck Manifest System.

The notice also advises the next planned phases of implementation. It should be noted that there are some changes to the implementation from the previous announcement. The remaining ports at which the mandatory use of ACE will be phased in, listed in sequential order, are as follows:

1. All ports of entry in the state of New York and Michigan.
2. All ports of entry in the states of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.
3. All ports of entry in the states of Idaho and Montana.
4. The remaining ports of entry in the state of North Dakota and the land border ports of Minnesota.
5. All ports of entry in the state of Alaska.

The Federal Register Notice is attached and can also be found at – http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20071800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2007/pdf/E7-762.pdf

If you want to learn more about ACE, please consider attending the upcoming FREE CBP hosted ACE Exchange Conference in Dearborn, Michigan, February 27 - 28, 2007. For more information and details on how to register for this event, visit : http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/toolbox/about/modernization/ace/reports_briefings_events/ace_ex_conf/ace_exchange_three/

Regards, CSPO

#1 Question we’re hearing: “Did I get hosed?”

#1 Answer we’re giving: “Yes, yes you did.”

Why? Because, if you’re with another e-Manifest provider, chances are you paid an unusually high setup fee. What for? Ah… we’re not sure.

We’ve had some very interested prospective clients decide to stay with their “current provider” because they already paid the setup fee.

If we’re not charging a setup fee, why not switch to Greeneye and experience the best in e-Manifest services. We’ll set you up while you’re on the phone, and “bam”, you’re submitting e-Manifests quicker and easier than ever.

Here’s an email from US Customs and Border Protection explaining the e-Manifest messaging issues over the last days.

——-Original Message——-
From: Howard, Dawne N
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2007 2:38 PM
Subject: Fw: TRADE USERS OF eMANIFEST!

To trade users of eManifest.

On the evening of January 25, 2007 CBP experienced some network problems
(cause still unknown) that impacted our ability to exchange messages
with the trade. It appears that most of the eManifests were received
but the return messages were not sent for unknown reasons. Due to these
messaging problems, many carriers did not send their trucks to the
border in a timely way or were stopped at the border for correction.

I have sent out some interim instructions to CBP Officers at ACE ports
instructing them to expedite eManifest shipments using the same
procedures CBP uses when our interfaces go down. This will allow them
to verify that all entries are on file and allowed to be released. If
entries are not in ACS, trucks will be stopped at the border until the
entry is transmitted and accepted. We will work to expedite the
clearance of all carriers that are filing eManifests.

Carriers must do their part as well by continuing to send correct and
timely eManifests. CBP has been encouraged by the threefold increase in
eManifests that occurred yesterday and will continue to work with all
parties to resolve it. We hope you continue to send in your eManifests
and we will do everything we can to release them if we are able.

When we resolve the situation we will reach out through every available
means to inform you that we are back to normal processing.
———————————————————————————————————————————

(Check our homepage for a green message box as soon as we hear. It’ll stay yellow until things change.)