In a bid to enhance efficiency of clearing borders and minimize the waiting time, the U. S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has come up new regulation regarding entry of cargO trucks from Mexico into South Texas. Truck movement across the international bridges within the Laredo Field Office is now required to provide a windshield placard with a QR code that points to the truck’s manifest document.
This new rule is applicable in the Laredo Field Office’s eight ports of entry, which are Laredo, Brownsville, Eagle Pass, Hidalgo, the Rio Grande City, Progreso, and Roma. Based on these declines CBP officials think this change will improve the efficiency of the border crossings to the advantage of all the carriers as well as the border officials.
“This is the first time the Laredo Field Office is employing large non-intrusive inspection x-ray systems in the trucks,” noted Armando Taboada who is an assistant director of field operation in Laredo Field Office. “The use of the QR code prevents one from choosing the wrong shipment or trip number on arrival hence time is saved. ”
Let me explain now that Laredo crossing is one of the most important logistics centers of the U. S. trade with more than $27. $ 8 billion in two-way trade witnessed in the month of July only. The World Trade Bridge of Laredo also purchased a new generation X-ray scanner that can inspect more than 150 containers per an hour. The use of QR codes will extend the help of the CBP officers by ensuring that the scanned cargo images are taken to the correct shipment reducing on time used in the inspection process.
Trucks that do not have the QR codes printed on them will not be sent back to Mexico, but instead undergo a manual process, which may be time-consuming in the crossing of the border. At present, CBP is trying to cooperate with trade partners and carriers in an attempt to simplify the shift to the new system. Despite some inconvenience caused by shutdown at the beginning, reduction in time taken to cross the bridge and lower costs due to fewer stops to offload cargo are expected to be among the long-term gains.
The new requirement has gained the approval of Laredo Motor Carriers Association (LMCA) with emphasis on the fact that it can help in expediting screening of cargo trucks. CBP leadership has been open, and effective in relaying this change and LMCA members are positive about this change concerning border crossings, said Jerry Maldonado, Chairman of LMCA.
While this may have resulted in shifts from the previous QR code requirement to the new one, carriers might have to go through a few extra steps, the main goal is to improve the operations of border crossing for carriers and augment their security.
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