FURTHER to my piece from 19 October, nothing has changed in regards to entry processing with the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (Quarantine).
The dire situation has gone from worse to worse. Without sounding like an alarmist, the situation is absolutely horrendous.
Industry (customs brokers and freight forwarders) are now resorting to moving their customers cargo under bond from the airline terminals and the wharves Australia-wide in order to save their customers from paying exorbitant storage fees until a Quarantine direction or release is received.
Quarantine processing is a user pay system. All of industry pays Quarantine to have the paperwork assessed, to receive a direction, to receive a release or to have the goods inspected. The problem is that all requests for processing are required to be submitted to the Cargo Online Lodgement System (COLS) system and are joining an ever growing list for human assessment before a direction is issued. I haven’t even touched on the elementary issue of submitting the file into COLS, waiting seven days or more and then finding out that the direction from Quarantine is wrong or inaccurate.
Another frustrating issue is that air-freight shipments from the time of departure until the time of arrival into Australia can be one or two days but it can also be as little as a few hours especially for cargo travelling from New Zealand.
It is impossible to lodge the paperwork to COLS seven days before arrival, therefore we submit the paperwork to Quarantine and have to wait seven days (if not more) to receive a direction. A frustrating issue is that when we wish to have the goods inspected, when we are volunteering or agreeing that the goods need to be inspected, that we are still required to wait seven days or more to receive an inspection direction.
In some way I would agree that if we are asking for a release, it takes longer to have a human assess and process the shipment. But, when we are saying “we want to have the goods inspected”, this really should be done instantly, and brokers should have the permission to create directions to have the goods inspected under Quarantine supervision.
Customs brokers work under accreditation programs, customs brokers should be allowed to direct all shipments for inspection or unpack regardless of the goods – this would short-circuit the Quarantine delays.
Quarantine recently have had the resources and funds to protect the Quarantine officers’ name from being printed on Quarantine directions (why, this was a priority I am not sure); all Quarantine directions are now signed off as a 13 alpha-numeric combination which looks like 3CD5X7XXXZ4LX but they do not have the funds to employ more staff or to operate seven days a week.
Importers are now paying unnecessary extra fees to move their goods under bond from the airline terminals and the wharves until a release or an inspection direction has been issued by Quarantine. Let’s remember that October, November and December have always been considered as a peak period (in the pre COVID-19 pandemic world) but let’s be honest, this whole calendar year has been at peak performance due to the surge in demand for goods caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shipping lines are stilling charging rent (detention) on the shipping containers. No leniency has been provided by the shipping lines, importers are paying higher shipping costs to ship their goods to Australia, they are now paying unnecessary movement costs to avoid storage at the wharves and then they receive a bill from the shipping lines after the empty container has been de-hired for rent on the shipping containers (caused by Quarantine delays). It is a mess. Quarantine have dropped the ball and they have no plan to fix the situation; they only work at best five and a half days a week, whereas industry works seven days a week.
The COVID-19 pandemic commenced in February 2020; Quarantine have had more than 21 months to get their affairs in order, they are now using the COVID-19 pandemic excuse to appease industry that they are under pressure and in the same tone they are saying entries are being submitted late (by industry) and that they cannot keep up.
I still stand by my previous opinion that Self Assessed Clearance (SAC) declarations are processed by Quarantine for free – Quarantine does not charge for SAC’s to be released, can anyone please explain why SACs are free – yet – they are assessed by a Quarantine officer and more than likely receiving priority over the entries that are being processed and charged. It is very simple – SACs should be charged a processing fee just like customs entries over $1000.
Solution:
- Quarantine should stop rotating staff,
- Quarantine should operate seven days a week and
- Quarantine should charge a fee for SAC release processing.
