The Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (Quarantine) has made enhancements to the Cargo Online Lodgement System (COLS) and the Cargo Workload Management System (CWMS).
We are now required to supply a reason if we lodge your shipment documents within two business days or less of the estimated arrival date.
IMPORTANT TO NOTE: This is now classified as a “late lodgement” and additional costs may be incurred on delivery/storage/detention and demurrage.
Depending on the reason for the late lodging, this may affect the timeframe for Quarantine assessment and/or release of your shipment.
Alternatively, Importers and Brokers that submit their documents early to the Department will receive assessment of their shipments in a timely manner.
As we are now in the BMSB season, with peak season upon us, it is essential that we receive ALL shipping documentation as soon as vessel has departed the origin port to allow for suitable processing.
If you have any further questions regarding the above, please kindly contact our Customs Brokers – David Gibson broker2@eescair.com and Bill Ellis broker@eescair.com.
Advice Direct from Quarantine:
Late lodgements are defined as those entries that are lodged just before the arrival date of the import and can sometimes occur after goods have arrived. Currently, the system does not consider whether a broker has submitted documentation very close to the arrival date, and in an increasing number of cases, to achieve prioritised processing of entries. Regrettably, we have seen a significant number (over 60% increase) of entries being lodged at or less than 12 hours prior to goods arrival. This has inadvertently disadvantaged those that lodge in reasonable timeframes, and resulted in us having to implement resource intensive manual processes in attempts to ensure equitable service.
This system enhancement will now allow the department to recognise when a broker is submitting documents for a sea freight shipment within 2 business days or less of their estimated arrival date, and class it as a ‘late lodgement’. In this case, the Broker or Importer will then be required to select a reason for the late lodgement before continuing with the submission. The department is very aware that there are sometimes valid reason as to why entries may be lodged within 2 business days prior to arrival. We will be able to take the late lodgement reason provided by the broker or importer and validate whether it is a legitimate late lodgement or not (eg for goods being imported on vessels with short voyage times of 72 hours, this would be considered a legitimate late lodgement). The department will then generate reports to provide us with actual statistics on the reasons and volumes of late lodgements.
