Nearly 13,000 electronic manifests were filed with United States Customs and Border Protection in September 2006, a dramatic increase since April, when only 1,000 e-manifests were filed. CBP has received more than 40,000 e-manifests filings, and this number continues to grow as the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) and the e-manifest feature become available at more land-border ports of entry.
The e-manifest capability is available to truck carriers at all ports of entry where the ACE has been deployed.
Truck carriers can submit an e-manifest through the web-based ACE secure data portal or via a CBP-approved Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). The ACE portal is essentially a customized web site that connects CBP, the trade community and other participating government agencies with a single, centralized online access point. Use of the portal is free of charge.
Truck carriers may choose to use third parties, that usually require a fee, to transmit e-manifests. Carriers may also elect to purchase software from an EDI software provider. A list of EDI software providers can be found on the CBP Modernization web site at www.cbp.gov/modernization.
ACE is currently deployed at 49 ports and will ultimately be in all 99 land-border ports. For information about how to establish an ACE account, e-mail CBP at [email protected].