Waterloo, Ontario—March 13, 2012—Two new cloud solutions that help air forwarders comply with United States and European security filing requirements are now available from the Descartes Systems Group, a Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions provider for logistics businesses.
Based on its Air AMS for Forwarders solution, Descartes' ACAS and ICS for Forwarders are part of Descartes' Cargo Security Compliance suite and leverage the connectivity of Descartes' Global Logistics Network (GLN) to air carriers and government customs agencies in the United States and Europe.
“Air forwarders are continually challenged to meet the growing number of security filing requirements and to find ways to reduce operational costs,” said Sandra Scott, Senior Director of Compliance, SEKO Logistics. “Descartes is helping us to stay current with the emerging security filing requirements while offering innovative ways for air forwarders to keep their operational costs in line.”
Descartes' cloud-based ACAS solution was built working with leading forwarders importing air cargo shipments into the United States. It complies with the Air Cargo Advance Screening (ACAS) pilot project, a joint effort between the U.S. Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that performs security threat threshold targeting using pre-departure air cargo information. As compared to manifest filings, ACAS is focused on the earlier receipt of commodity and shipping party details for risk assessment. Descartes ACAS solution uses the GLN to collect house bill information directly from forwarders' enterprise systems to file directly to CBP without manual intervention, thereby increasing data quality. Air forwarders also have the option to utilize Web-based tools to create and update additional required data. Embedded master reference data is used to perform data validation while value-added compliance services—such as denied party screening—are available to identify potential risk issues with trading partners.
Descartes' cloud ICS for Forwarders solution allows air forwarders to file directly to the European Import Control System (ICS) instead of through the air carrier. As an extension to Descartes' breakthrough Air AMS for Forwarders solution and built on the same customs security platform, ICS for Forwarders provides forwarders with visibility to their customs manifest and security filings for multiple countries through a single view, reducing implementation complexities. In addition, air forwarders can gain greater control over the filing process, file earlier in the shipment process, help reduce filing errors and reduce carrier fees by as much as 75 percent.
“Descartes has been a leader in helping customers make air customs and security filings, with effective technology solutions and a dedicated customs implementations team,” said Cindy Yamamoto, Senior Vice President, Product Management for Descartes. “For the thousands of air forwarders already connected to the GLN, the ability to take advantage of ACAS and ICS for Forwarders can be a simple and efficient option to meet the growing number of security initiatives, while increasing automation of their air shipment processes.”
