Customs Brokers

  • CBP Penalty

    Question: We are a broker and CBP issued a penalty for late uploading documents into DIS.  CBP claimed that they sent a message of the request via ACE (to our software), but it was never received (this has been addressed with our ABI rep and our internal IT dept).   The day we received an e-mail […]

  • When did customs broker stop advancing money for shipping charges?

    Question: Maybe I’m showing my age here, but when did customs brokers stop advancing money for shipping charges? When I began my career working for a customs broker, it was customary to pay charges owed to carriers or other forwarders, and advance those on the billing invoice to the client.  This included everything from simple […]

  • Broker Management (KPI’s & Metrics)

    Question: I’ve started a new role as a Compliance Analyst within our Transportation team/Trade Compliance groups. One of my areas of focus & responsibility will be creating a Broker Scorecard that we will use to measure against the Customs Brokerage companies that we utilize for our imports. Any suggestions out there of which key metrics/KPI’s […]

  • Customs Broker Power of Attorney

    Question: My understanding is that a customs broker PoA between an LLC and a customs broker, once issued, is in effect until revoked. We have a Customs Broker advising us that if the person who signed the PoA has left the company a new PoA has to be put in place to replace the PoA […]

  • power of attorney

    Question: Question:  We are transitioning from doing business under an individual broker’s license to a corporate license with qualifying broker(s).  Our corporate license has been approved and is active within Ace. We are in the process of developing a transition strategy and developing a timeline to get everything changed over.  Can we execute sub-POAs from […]

  • Customs Brokerage for Small Parcel

    Question: Hello ICPA community, I am working with one of the major small parcel providers that sold my company on their “program management” solution awhile back, which is extremely costly. I think many of us fail to see the value and have decided to discontinue the service.  In doing so, I’ve asked for global contacts […]

  • CUSTOMS BUSINESS

    Question: With regards to the ruling of last week ( HQ H290535) for Hampton providing HTS numbers to its customers for importation use, how does this effect a company in the USA who manufactures a product and sells to OEM’s and other companies, and are asked by these clients what the proper HTS or Schedule […]

  • USING MORE THAN ONE CUSTOMS BROKER

    QUESTION: I am the Trade and Compliance Manager for a global organization and managing our Customs Broker falls under my umbrella, but I do not have a say in what freight forwarders are used.  We import about 200 containers a year. In the past we had the same company that did our brokerage move our […]

  • Reports from customs brokers

    QUESTION: We are looking to receive reports from our customs broker to supplement our ACE import reports. Logically we will ask for the entry number to link to the ACE data.  Want to ask the membership what other information, not submitted to/available in ACE, they ask their customs brokers to report and how frequently reports […]

  • Customs Broker Record Retention

    QUESTION: We are a customs broker and have traditionally saved our records in paper form.  We are now looking into saving scanned copies.  Specifically, we are considering keeping the scanned copies either on a corporate drive, which would require certain permissions to delete documents, or in our ABI system which allows us to store the […]

  • SERVICE OF PROCESS – BROKER

    QUESTION: For customs brokers, does the broker always have to accept “service of process” on behalf of a non-resident importer when the broker is filing their entries? Or is it the broker’s choice to accept service of process vs. requiring the non-resident importer to designate another U.S. agent to accept service of process? I’ve reviewed […]

  • BROKER FILING EFFICIENCY

    QUESTION: How does your brokerage team measure efficiency?  We are currently focused on entries filed per agent and are exploring other metrics to help identify opportunities for improvement.  Do you get more detailed than each entry summary, such as efficiency per entry line?  Or have different metrics for different customer needs, such as PGA, multiple […]