The Canada Border Services Ageny (CBSA) continues to experience system delays in processing releases that are related to some marine cargo control documents. As a result of this delay, the CBSA is receiving all incoming data but there can be a delay in processing and sending outbound message such as acknowledgments, reject messages and notices.
The CBSA is aware of the impact this has created and has provided the following comments:
I can certainly understand their frustration. This is not meeting our own expectations. My apologies for not being more in touch throughout this challenging time. We have been entirely focused on resolution, which – I realize – has taken far too long to achieve.
To answer your question, yes, we feel as though we have now established a solid understanding of the underlying issues, which appears to have been related to the reconciliation between systems when the supplemental data associated with e-commerce shipments came in through the Advance Commercial Information (aci) transmissions to TITAN. Briefly, the specialization of the systems, more than just the volumes, was fundamental to what has transpired in the last few weeks.
As you know, marine systems were not designed to deal with high-volumes of low-value (e-commerce) products. We created the CLVS program in air and land modes to deal with the practicalities associated with those modes which were used to transport these shipments associated with a fast delivery model. Marine vessels were never foreseen as a preferred conveyance for e-commerce. With the unexpected overnight shutdown of air cargo capacity out of China, we found ourselves in an unexpected situation where all of a sudden that was precisely the mode being used for these shipments. As such, ACI – a system for large (and generally high value) commercial shipments became used to transmit, not just the main ACI message but the tens of thousands of associated supps information sets, associated with each e-commerce package. This created not only volume backlogs but reconciliation issues between different IT systems that ACI is linked to.
Having just – as of today – identified some work-arounds to prevent the reconciliation issues, we are now working on a mitigation plan by which to manage future such challenges. We will be back in touch with BCCC to discuss the existing data-transmission protocols & possible alternative approaches for e-commerce shipments in marine.
Willson International continues to follow this situation, and will provide further information as it becomes available.
Willson International is following the situation, and will provide further information as it becomes available.