The UPU’s EMS Cooperative has launched four pilot projects in Brazil, Portugal, Togo and Tunisia, in order to find solutions for speeding up customs clearance of EMS items and improving delivery times.
Currently, some items are held in customs for over 24 hours because of a lack of information, suspicions about their content or unpaid import duties. This delay affects delivery times.
"In Tunisia, of the 20,000 EMS items we receive each year, 20 per cent are held in customs and stored in special areas for in-depth controls; the customer may be called in or the item sent to another customs centre before being delivered to the addressee. We will endeavour to reduce these delays by asking our customers to provide more detailed information on the content, value, and so on,” said Khaled Abid, director of the Tunisian Post’s Rapid-Poste network and coordinator of the pilot project in Tunisia.
He continued: “The new rules we have defined will be communicated to businesses that use our service and also directly to customers at post office counters. To that end, we are launching a poster campaign, and we will be working with Customs to redefine the regulatory holding periods."
The four pilot projects have three phases: (1) educating businesses and customers on the proper conduct of customs formalities and on the information that needs to be provided; (2) clearly defining the mandates of the postal operator and the customs authorities to improve import customs clearance; and (3) ensuring that EMS items are tracked and traced to evaluate progress made.
The first results of these pilot projects will be presented to the General Assembly of the EMS Cooperative in May. Best practices identified will be shared at the end of the project so that other operators can follow suit in streamlining their customs clearance procedures.