January 2, 2018 – Manifest Processing at Montreal Longroom Delayed; Volumes to Increase as Chinese New Year Approaches

Forwarders receiving freight from Montreal are experiencing issues with the processing of manifests at Montreal (0395), which have been delayed due to short staffing at CBSA, as reported by CIFFA.

The result is storage fees incurred and missed deadlines/delivery delays for the clients.

As the mid-February Chinese New Year approaches, forwarders will need to expect and prepare for a very busy season.

The CBSA had planned for overtime on January 4 to normalize turnaround times. They have also indicated they will hire and train more employees for the processing of manifests.

Where possible, go on eHBL for your consolidated cargo. Where only paper re-manifesting is available, CBSA has previously advised against submitting large packets of documents. Preferentially, and when more staff is available, more packages of fewer documents can be processed quicker.

In terms of advisory and to mitigate further delays, CBSA noted that, if you have a manifest of perishable goods to submit, make sure that you indicate this on a “post it note” and place it on the manifests. Also, ask your runner to mention that the manifests are for perishable goods when the manifest is deposited at the counter. This will permit the manifests to be processed as a priority.