Canadian National Railway Co. recently began offering shippers and third-party providers an integrated electronic process to manage intermodal shipments under Canada's Customs Self-Assessment Program (CSA).
Once a shipper creates a point-of-origin bill of lading though Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), certain CSA "triggers" are activated on electronic manifests that CN sends to Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA).
CN officials believe the process will reduce EDI requirements and enable shippers to file a consolidated import record with CCRA instead of individual customs entries, according to a prepared statement.
The railroad plans to market the process as a paperless rail-intermodal option to CSA importers currently shipping by truck.
Source: Progressive Railroading Daily News
