How delegating makes filing Egypt ACI easier for principals through representative companies

May 23, 2022, noon

There are numerous organizational models in global supply chains for shipping cargo across seas and land.

Sometimes the manufacturing company is also the exporting company, taking care of their own paperwork. On other occasions, the whole logistics of shipping the cargo is handed over to special companies or representatives – freight forwarders, agents, and similar specialists.

All of these models have their own rules and procedures, and they also reflect on document processing, either on paper, or in the digital world.

Piles of delegated paperwork

This means that these representing companies also prepare, process and otherwise handle the piles of paperwork that needs to accompany every shipment – from the manufacturing plant, over road or rail transportation, to the port of origin, where the shipping line operator takes over the freight and issues additional paperwork, and then to the port of destination, where import customs clearance procedures demand additional paperwork to be filed and processed.

If all these documents are handled on paper, it requires numerous printed documents, signatures, seals, courier document deliveries, verifications, validations, corrections, and sometimes even lots of time and money to get it all done – all of this adding unimaginable amounts of stress to a process that is already strained by other influencing factors.

CargoX Platform introduces Delegations to make ACI filing more efficient

The CargoX Platform – authorized as the blockchain document transfer gateway service provider for the Egyptian NAFEZA single windows for global trade facilitation – has launched a groundbreaking new feature. It is called Delegation and makes it possible for large foreign exporting companies and domestic importers to Egypt to file Advance Cargo Information (ACI) documents with the help of representatives, i.e. freight forwarders, agents, and other specialists in the field, who help major principal companies get the work done in the global supply chain.

Here is how it works

Any company, registered and with a validated account on the CargoX Platform, can invite another registered and validated company to become its representative for ACI filings to the Egyptian Customs Authority.

This allows the principal company to offload ACI filing, while maintaining full control over the process.

Because both companies need to have verified accounts on the platform, and they need to be connected on the platform through their contact lists, this increases security and transparency, so that the risk of appointing the wrong company is reduced to near zero.

The representative company can file ACI documentation on behalf of the principal, and the principal can always add additional documents to the ACI filing, if needed.

A unique feature on the platform lets the principal designate whether the ACI filing services will be paid by the principal itself, or by the representative company – and full accounting reports for these services are always available on the CargoX Platform for both parties involved. This makes it easier for the principal to either fully offload the processing to its logistic service provider, or to stay involved in the process.

If the principal wants to operate with more than one representative, that is possible as well. And any representative – freight forwarder, agent, or similar – can act on behalf of multiple principals, just as in real life.

A representative company can also authorize another company to become its representative (level 2), however, the principal can rest assured that this new company will NOT automatically become its representative, too. The relation of representation is strictly confidential, and it only runs one level deep. The principal needs to invite and authorize each representative company individually.

The relationship between a principal and a representative can be established very quickly – it literally just takes minutes. And the same goes for terminating a representation, as either of the two parties can quickly disengage their representation relation on the cargoX Platform.

Benefits of fully electronic ACI filings to Egyptian Customs Authorities

As the Government of Egypt has proven to be one of the most innovative among the maritime trade countries, it has implemented a process for filing Advance Cargo Information (ACI) completely electronically, through the CargoX Platform.

Various users, including customs authorities, domestic importers, foreign exporters, already benefit from the system because it utilizes blockchain technology that ushers increased transparency,eliminates red tape, and reduces average cargo release time from 29 days to 9 days, which is consequently accompanied by a reduction in container demurrage and storage fees. Compliance costs for shippers have also been slashed from more than US $600 to US $165 or less as a result of the move onto the blockchain.

Benefits of using the digital platform NAFEZA and CargoX for filing ACI:

Achieving transparency and eliminating trader-officer interaction (red tape)
Reducing the number of procedural steps to just 4
Reducing average cargo release time from 29 days to less than 9
Reducing container demurrage and storage fees
Reducing document compliance costs from US $600 (Min) to US $165 (Max)

Benefits for the Government:

Streamlining governing cargo clearance processes
Integrating all government bodies associated with cargo clearance (26 parties)
Preventing entry of shipments from anonymous exporters and/or anonymous importers
Establishing a reliable national data warehouse with high quality data to drive the decision-making process for the ministry of finance, trade & industry, transport, and cabinet
Transforming 6 documents into digital format and eliminating 11 other documents
Improving Egypt’s Doing Business – Trade across Borders ecosystem,
Compliance with WCO and TFA requirements.

To find out more how to start using the CargoX Platform Delegations feature, head over to the Delegations help article at the CargoX Platform Help system.