Researchers to study e-truck manifest’s impact

Researchers to study e-truck manifest’s impact    U.S. Customs and Border Protection awarded a contract to the non-profit research arm of the American Trucking Associations to study the extent to which the new electronic truck manifest filing system is reducing delays at land border crossings.
   The American Transportation Research Institute said it will document inefficiencies that are caused by agency and motor carrier practices and recommend e-truck manifest refinements that can help improve clearance times for commercial vehicles. The organization said it will also conduct a cost-benefit analysis of the truck manifest system from a government and industry point of view.
   CBP has almost completed installing the truck manifest system at most border crossings on the northern and southern borders that handle commercial vehicles. The e-manifest is a component of the agency’s Automated Commercial Environment, a modernization effort to automate customs filing functions and communications with the trade. The e-truck manifest enables truckers to prefile their manifest to the CBP system so that the agency can do a security screening of the shipment and speed up processing times at the checkpoint. Officers at the booth are able to see consolidated entry information about all the shipments on a truck that are processed under multiple cargo release programs.