CBSA ANNOUNCES NEW UPDATES AND CHANGES TO ELECTRONIC HOUSE BILL OF LADING (eHBL) FILING

Please be advised that the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has recently applied several system enhancements to address eManifest house bills issues, and to implement new arrival rules for cargo. These rules are already in place and the mandatory eHBL filing will be effective on January 4, 2021. For more details, please reference the information below.

Effective Immediately as November 1, 2020 

As of this date, CBSA has enabled cargo status updates to meet the requirements that must be in place before the shipment release can be applied:

• All cargo documents will have to be in arrived status before any release notifications are sent out (either at Port of Discharge or inland location).
• All Warehouse Arrival Certification Messages (WACM) must include warehouse sub-location codes.
• Sub Location codes filed under eHBL must match the Master BL Sub Location code filed by the 9000 series Ocean Carrier.

CBSA additionally have enabled Freight Forwarders and NVOCC's to submit eHBL for ALL consolidated types of shipments (including the following), which is a new feature that is proved by CBSA:

● Back-to-Back shipments – These are shipments with one shipper and one consignee that is managed/controlled by a freight forwarder who issues an eHBL, and where only one eHBL is applied against one carrier filed Master BL.

● Buyer Consolidation shipments – These are shipments with multiple eHBLs applied to a single carrier filed Master BL, but all the eHBLs are consigned to a single consignee and consolidated together prior to shipment.

Exceptions are applied based on the following conditions:

• Consolidated in-transit shipments moving from offshore through Canada and destined to the US may continue to be reported using electronic house bills or legacy ACI supplemental reports.
• Consolidated in-transit shipments of US origin goods that are entering Canada for offshore export will continue to be exempt from electronic house bills.
• Canada FROB cargo will still be required to be reported under the ACI supplemental reports.
• OOCL will still support the submission of supplemental reports where supported by CBSA.

Effective on JANUARY 4, 2021 

The use of eHBLs for  all consolidated shipments will become mandatory (the aforementioned note for exception conditions still apply). 

As a result of these changes by CBSA, all Freight Forwarders and NVOCC's must have a CBSA issued 8000 series carrier code to be able to file eHBL directly in ACI or appoint a service provider that can file on their behalf.

The 24-hour advanced filing rule remains in place and applies to all manifested types– eHBL, Consigned BLs or Master BLs.

All advance House Bill data must be electronically transmitted to CBSA using the eHBL requirements published by TCCU (Technical Commercial Client Unit), including the eHBL Close message as is currently required.

Freight Forwarders and NVOCC's can transmit Advance House Bill data using either an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) method, CBSA's eManifest Web Portal, or by using a 3^rd party service provider, such as CargoSmart.   

eHBL Filing Highlights:

Who can file?

• All Freight Forwarders and NVOCC's must have a CBSA issued 8000 series carrier code to be able to file eHBL directly in ACI or appoint a service provider that can file on their behalf.
   
  When to file?

• The 24-hour advanced filing rule remains in place and applies to all manifested types– eHBL, Consigned BLs or Master BLs.
  
  How to file?                                                     
• All advance House Bill data must be electronically transmitted to CBSA using the eHBL requirements published by TCCU (Technical Commercial Client Unit), including the eHBL Close message as is currently required.
• Freight Forwarders/NVOCC's can transmit Advance House Bill data using either:
1. An Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) method, or
2. CBSA's eManifest Web Portal, or
3. Third party service provider, such as CargoSmart.    
   
   References:
• For information regarding 3^rd party services provided via CargoSmart, please refer to below for more details:
• https://www.cargosmart.com/en/company/technical_support.htm
• Additional details on CBSA's D-Memo Regulation regarding eHBL is available at the CBSA site:
• https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publications/dm-md/d3/d3-3-1-eng.html#wb-cont 
• CBSA has also published a set of FAQ's at:
• https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/eservices/faq-eng.html  

We would also recommend that all Freight Forwarders and NVOCC's shipping consolidated shipments to Canada ensure that they will be compliant effective January 4, 2021.

OOCL will no longer support the filing of HBL data for Canada imports on behalf of any freight forwarder or NVOCC effective January 4, 2021.