Crowley offering electronic arrival notices in Puerto Rico

Crowley offering electronic arrival notices in Puerto Rico Crowley Maritime Corp. says it is now offering its first electronic arrival notices for freight arriving in Puerto Rico.
   The notices contain bill of lading information and give customers advance notice of 24 hours that their freight is on an incoming vessel. That compares with the old notification procedure of alerting customers after cargo was cleared by Hacienda, the Puerto Rico Department of Treasury.
   'What this means is that retailers on the island will know ahead of time what is in their containers and when those containers are arriving so that they can prioritize which loads they want to have picked up first after its been cleared in order to get their most-needed merchandise to consumers the fastest,' said Roberto Lugo, Crowley's vice president in Puerto Rico. 'Shippers also benefit by being able to account for merchandise in their inventories more rapidly, which can be particularly important for month-end inventory reporting.'
   Crowley said the new practice will also benefit truckers, who will no longer have to stop to pick up a bill of lading from the Crowley terminal office in the Isla Grande area of the Port of San Juan.
   Crowley can fax or e-mail notices directly to customers, allowing truckers to proceed directly to equipment control to receive equipment interchange agreements and load cargo without delay, the company noted.