Homeland Security Importer Security Filing Program Continues to Gain Momentum and Quality

Red Bank, NJ, August 20, 2009 --(PR.com)-- The U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Importer Security Filing (ISF) program is gaining significant momentum and quality, noted LOG-NET, Inc., a major provider of international logistics software and ISF filing services. The program represents a major advancement in international trade processes as importers must provide details for the majority of trading partners involved in the importation of goods to the United States before the goods leave. The new regulations are increasing the volume and velocity of data regarding the flow of goods thus creating process challenges for many importers.

The regulation is in a voluntary compliance period for 2009 with full compliance required by January of 2010. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has been continuously rolling out outreach programs and information system improvements related to the program. They have committed to respond to all electronic filings within two minutes of their submission by an importer. CBP has been keeping this commitment and continues to improve their performance. Some importers have been hesitant to comply awaiting stronger momentum and avoiding extra costs to process this information. Information is flowing well now, systems are very cost effective and the biggest challenge is now getting importers to update their business processes. For the month of July, U.S. Customs and Border Protection's performance improved across the board as LOG-NET experienced the following interface activity in the ISF program:

Average time for response: 1.76 minutes, down from 3.5 minutes in June
Mean time for response: 1.80 minutes, same as June
Fastest response: 11 seconds, down from 12 seconds in June
Slowest response: 14.9 minutes, down from 3 hours in June

During the same period, CBP implemented a format upgrade which occurred precisely as posted with no unexpected impacts to any of our client filings. This was a testimony to CBP working closely with industry engineering teams, such as LOG-NET, to minimize any impact to trade flows. CBP also announced that they will be tightening the acceptable filing requirements and will reject filings that have been submitted with some previously accepted errors in their format or content. “Fortunately due to our system design and tight integration with Customs, our clients have not been experiencing these filing issues," noted John Motley, CEO and Founder of LOG-NET, Inc. "We have also seen both the volume of filings per customer and the number of customers filing increase in the past month. Importers are definitely moving forward with their programs to file through proven providers," he added.

Importers large and small are being encouraged to understand and comply with this regulation as CBP also recently published their "Guidelines for the Assessment and Cancellation of Claims for Liquidate Damages for Failure to Comply with the Importer Security Filing Requirements." Importers face a $5,000 claim per incident if they do not comply with the new regulations by January. Services such as LOG-NET's ISF capability enables importers, shippers and forwarders to quickly and easily comply.

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