Air, Forwarding, Freight News, IT

CCS-UK Fallback proves its worth during Chief shutdown

[ July 9, 2021   //   Chris ]

Freight software firm CCS-UK says its Electronic Fallback system kept UK airfreight flowing during a 14-hour outage by HMRC’s Chief computer on 22 June.

BT – which operates the CCS-UK community system –  invoked the CCS-UK Electronic Fallback routine enabling forwarders, transit sheds operators and airlines to continue operating without interruption.

The CCS-UK Electronic Fallback system grants authorised traders in the UK delegated clearance to export and import goods in the event of a Chief failure and avoids backlogs that would result from manually processing customs clearances.

The Electronic Fallback system was developed in collaboration with the UK industry, and is fully approved by HMRC. It can function for a continuous CHIEF outage of up to 30 days.

CCS-UK user group programme director Guy Thompson (pictured, below) said: “In this recent outage, those agents, handlers and airlines that used the Electronic Fallback service were very successful in maintaining export and import flows, clearly illustrating its value to the air cargo industry and to our overall economy.”

However, he added: “Unfortunately, not enough forwarders took advantage of the service. While a manual fallback process is available and was used, its operation is far more onerous on freight forwarders and transit shed operators  than the electronic alternative provided by CCS-UK. We would therefore like to encourage more forwarders to check out the service, which is free to all CCS-UK users. Our web site contains downloadable guidance notes that fully explain how the system works.”

He concluded “We are working with HMRC to implement an industry live trial to ensure that the air cargo industry will be better prepared for any future failure of CHIEF.”

Tags: CCS-UK