Australian Customs fiasco leads to port backups

A recent Australian Customs fiasco has left Customs brokers vulnerable following the crash of a new integrated cargo system that was intended to speed up customs clearance but resulted in freight taking four days to clear (vs. ten minutes prior to system changes).

It is estimated that the backlog at Australian ports and airports may take until January or February to be fully cleared up, and in the meanwhile many forwarders are using paper to lodge their declarations with Customs seven weeks after the launch of the system, reports the HK Shipping Gazette.

Freight forwarders are complaining of angry retailers because containers are in storage and the goods are not on their shelves. They say the turmoil could have been avoided had Customs heeded warnings more than a month before the IT failure that the new AUD250 million (US$185 million) web based system could not cope with the volume of cargo. Customs only boosted the system’s capacity in the aftermath of the disaster, said the report.