The American Transportation Research Institute has published an analysis of the ACE e-Manifest roll-out and how it’s affecting carriers. You can download the report from their website: Assessing the Impact of the ACE Truck e-Manifest System on Trucking Operations (PDF).

The overall finding: ACE e-Manifest has been a mixed-bag: workload and costs have generally increased for carriers and the border process has become smoother. Here are a few point I think are worth noting:

1. The northern and southern borders are facing different issues: Paperwork and broker communication are the biggest challenges on the Canadian/U.S. border, while inspections and processing times are a concern on the Mexico/U.S. border.
2. Processes and paperwork requirements are not currently consistent at all border crossings (I’m sure this is not a surprise to you).
3. ACE e-Manifest actually improves inspection targeting: The number of trips where the driver is directed to secondary inspection have decreased by 50%, while the actual number of post-secondary inspections have increased by about 42%.
4. e-Manifest start-up costs have been considerable for many carriers.

Let me expand on that last point a bit. Here is the full paragraph regarding e-Manifest costs (emphasis is mine) :

“The case studies also reveal that although initial start-up costs are considerable for many carriers, the ACE Truck e-Manifest will potentially provide net operational benefits for medium and large carriers. This experience may differ for small carriers or carriers that do not cross the border frequently, primarily due to the substantial initial investment necessary and the lack of returns to scale. For some small carriers, the new technology may be the impetus to cease border crossing operations.”

It’s really a shame that small carriers are even facing that situation. But, the reality is 1) Customs’ ACE Portal is confusing and difficult to use and 2) Most 3rd party e-Manifest service providers charge you an arm and a leg just to get started.

That’s where we come in. We pride ourselves on not only being ridiculously easy to use, but on offering great customer service and no set-up fee. That last part bugs the heck out of some of our competitors, but we want to make it as easy as possible for you to try us out. We think that once you’ve given us a shot, you’ll stick with us. But, if for some reason you don’t, we won’t charge you a thing.

So email us or give us a call at 701.551.1414. You’ll talk to a real person who can answer your questions and get you setup in just a few easy steps.

Customs has stated in their Enforcement Plan that in Phase 2, any truck without an e-Manifest attempt will be denied permit to proceed (that means denied entry into the US and turned around). Since Phase 2 begins in less than two weeks for some ports, it’s important to understand what is a valid attempt at an e-Manifest Trip.

“Phase 2: …CBP will deny a permit to proceed into the U.S. to any carrier, required to submit an e-Manifest, which arrives without submitting or attempting an e-Manifest…”

In correspondence with Jim Swanson, Chief Cargo Release Branch of the Office of Field Operations with US Customs, Greeneye has been informed that a Trip Receipt including a Trip Number is sufficient to proof of an attempt.

{Please request a Problem Ticket in any instance where you hear otherwise.}

The U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection announced the latest ACE e-Manifest enforcement dates in a Federal Register Notice published on Friday, April 13th 2007. Briefly, it says that starting July 12, 2007, e-Manifests will need to be filed in advance of trucks entering the United States through land border ports in Vermont and New Hampshire, and the ports in North Dakota where it’s not currently being enforced. Those ports of entry are:

1. St. John
2. Fortuna
3. Ambrose
4. Carbury
5. Noonan
6. Dunseith
7. Sherwood
8. Antler
9. Northgate
10. Westhope
11. Portal

If you’re already passing through ports where e-Manifest is enforced, this obviously won’t be a huge deal for you. If this announcement will finally force you to start filing e-Manifests for the first time, now is a great time to apply for an ACE Portal account and investigate third party filing options. That will give you plenty of time to weigh your options and get used to the new requirements.

Starting today (Thursday, April 19, 2007), carriers entering through land ports in California, New Mexico, and Texas will be required to file electronic manifests prior to arriving at the border.

Since this is Phase I of the ACE e-Manifest implementation for these ports, the information we provided in Greeneye’s Explanation of the U.S. CBP ACE e-Manifest Enforcement Plan is relevant here:

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 rare. Chances are an e-Manifest is required for most or all of your shipments.

Although many of the problems and system issues have already been worked out during the Cluster I roll out, you might still run into some issues. Here’s what you should do if that happens:

1. If your driver gets stopped, hassled, etc. for an e-Manifest issue, have them politely take the CBP Officer’s name and be sure to get a problem ticket. That’s the best way to document the situation and make sure its addressed and fixed in the future.
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.

Good luck! Please call, email, or leave a comment if you have any questions - whether or not you’re a customer of ours.

We wanted to let you all know that we’ve scrapped all of the content that was on our ACE e-Manifest Port Guide page and replaced it with an easier to understand ACE e-Manifest Deployment Map. Now you’ll be able to easily see how each e-Manifest phase deployment affects land ports in different states.

Consider the map we have up today a “draft” version. We know it’s a little fuzzy, but we thought it was better to get the information out now rather instead of later. We’ll update it with a higher quality version as soon as we can.