ARCHIVED - Technical Design Working Group

January 2011 to October 2012

Meetings of the eSPN Technical Design Working Group were held between January 2011 and October 2012, via Webinar and teleconference methods, and focused on eManifest freight forwarder requirements and system functionalities.

From January 2011 to May 2011, three meetings of the working group were held to review freight forwarder requirements and the Electronic Commerce Client Requirements Document (ECCRD) – Chapter 5: Advance Commercial Information (ACI)/eManifest House Bill in detail. Trade members provided valuable feedback on the house bill design, which assisted the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) in completing the overall electronic house bill process. The CBSA also provided regular updates on developments of the electronic house bill functionality, and availability of the ACI/eManifest House Bill chapter of the ECCRD.

From August 2012 to October 2012, the CBSA hosted three information sessions to provide the freight forwarder community with an overview of the draft Electronic Data Interchange ANSI and EDIFACT Message Implementation Guides for the transmission of house bill data. The CBSA provided clarification on a number of system requirements and policy-related questions were raised with the CBSA commercial policy group for feedback.

July 2–October 29, 2010

Weekly meetings of the eSPN Technical Design Working Group were held from July 2, 2010 to October 29, 2010, via Webinar and teleconference methods to support clients undergoing system testing for eManifest highway implementation. As of November 1, 2010, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) systems are available for highway carriers who can now transmit their pre-arrival cargo and conveyance data to the CBSA before arriving at the border.

Future meetings of the eSPN Technical Design Working Group will focus on house bill design and will be comprised of freight forwarder representatives.

June 25, 2010

The meeting opened with a review of minor changes to the Electronic Commerce Client Requirements Document (ECCRD) for the highway mode, which have been made since testing began. Members discussed the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) lab testing, including eManifest technical support, for the remainder of the meeting. In response to the trade members' suggestion, weekly meetings of the eSPN Technical Design Working Group will be held, as required, until October 2010 via the Webex tool that combines Webinar and teleconference methods.

April 21, 2010

Meeting participants discussed a "one-step message" approach for clients to send highway data to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) under eManifest. One-step messaging will allow clients to send multiple cargo and conveyance messages to the CBSA in a single interchange. The CBSA provided an overview of the process for sending a one-step message, and trade members requested that a set of guidelines be published.

The CBSA informed trade members that the Electronic Commerce Client Requirements Document (ECCRD) for the highway mode will be available on the CBSA Web site once French translation is complete. Trade members suggested that weekly conference calls be held once the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) test environment becomes available.

January 27, 2010

The meeting began with updates on action items from the group's October 1, 2009 meeting. Members discussed issues such as the ability of trade to transmit post-arrival deletions via Electronic Data Interchange (EDI); conveyance information for mail and hand-carried goods; Electronic Commerce Client Requirements Document (ECCRD) definitions; contents of the new amendment code table; and Estimated Time of Arrival on conveyance.

Following the review of action items, trade members brought up a list of questions regarding the ECCRD for highway. Some of the topics included: flying trucks; Release Notification System (RNS) arrival messages; house bills; split shipments; in-bond arrival; consignee coding and record; Section 12 report and maps; clearing shipments for brokers; EDI for Administration, Commerce and Transport (EDIFACT) comparison documents; and the future status of transponders.

The meeting concluded with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) informing trade members that the timelines and turnaround time for answering technical questions would be clearly defined. Trade members were also encouraged to e-mail or call the CBSA with any additional questions and concerns.

October 1, 2009

The meeting began with an update on the status of eManifest technical design issues and action items from the meeting in July 2009.

The working group conducted a final review of the Electronic Commerce Client Requirements Document (ECCRD) for the highway mode. Trade members offered feedback on the ECCRD relating to the glossary of terms, Release Notification System (RNS) messages and the reporting of mixed loads. Other suggestions included a further review of the post-arrival Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) deletions, the “mandatory order” of transmitting cargo and conveyance data in the highway mode, and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) time zone list.

The CBSA informed trade members that although EDI users can begin transmitting eManifest information in spring 2010, the 18-month implementation timeline for all highway carriers will begin in fall 2010, when the eManifest Web portal will be publicly available.

The meeting concluded with the identification of additional action items for the final ECCRD for the highway mode, including the setting of time zones in the eManifest Web portal for client profiles and the requirement for a lead sheet*.

*Currently, the CBSA requires highway carriers to present bar-coded lead sheets as a means of linking actual shipments to pre-arrival trade data. Under eManifest, the CBSA will mandate the presentation of approved reference numbers in bar code format (e.g., Cargo Control Number, transaction number) to facilitate the timely and efficient processing of commercial goods at the border.

July 21–22, 2009

During the two-day meeting, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) led a detailed review of the eSPN Technical Design Issue Log and the Electronic Commerce Client Requirements Document (ECCRD) for the highway mode. The CBSA also reported on the preliminary findings of recent cross-Canada eManifest portal prototype consultations. Trade members offered suggestions for future testing of the portal prototype.

Members received the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport (EDIFACT) comparison documents. These documents highlighted the differences between systems' programming for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) and the CBSA's Advance Commercial Information (ACI) initiatives.

On the topic of amendment code tables, trade members suggested that the CBSA review the current U.S. codes and use the eSPN technical design working group as a forum to discuss ways to improve error messaging in the eManifest system. Members also provided feedback on the broker download functionality related to notifications and the Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) data element for cargo and conveyance information.

Trade members recommended that the CBSA review the query function in the Pre-Arrival Review System (PARS) Release Notification System (RNS). The CBSA confirmed that a test environment will be available for trade a number of weeks before the system moves into production. An eSPN technical design working group meeting will be held prior to finalizing the ECCRD.

May 5–6, 2009

At this first meeting of the new eSPN technical design working group, the terms of reference were distributed to members with a request for feedback.

The CBSA led a detailed review of the technical issue log with the group. Members recommended that the CBSA establish an issue process early in the development cycle to enable added functionality to be documented and separate logs maintained for both open and closed issues.

New American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce, and Transport (EDIFACT) cargo and conveyance maps were presented to members for discussion. Also discussed was the possibility of exploring the development of an Extensible Markup Language (XML) solution to structure data across different information systems. It was agreed that the Electronic Commerce Client Requirements Document (ECCRD) should be updated with sample scenarios, process flows and outbound messages in the sample maps.

Members were updated on the development of the eManifest Portal and provided comments and suggestions to the CBSA during a walk-through of the Portal prototype.