To       : All HAFFA Members

Ref       : HAFFA News 45 (2009-2010)

Date     : 09 November 2009

 

~ HAFFA News Extract ~

 

ROAD CARGO SYSTEM (ROCARS) 道路貨物資料系統

 

A. Introduction

·      Submission of electronic advance cargo information (e-ACI) of road transport to the Customs and Excise Department (Customs)

·      To be implemented in the first quarter of 2010

 

Further to the HAFFA annual report of the External Affairs Sub-committee (2008-2009) published in April 2009, the Customs have closely worked with the industry stakeholders (including HAFFA) to finalize detailed operational matters in the past few months in the run-up to the launching of the ROCARS system, which is built to enable Hong Kong to keep abreast with national, regional and global requirements in moving towards electronic advance cargo information to the Customs for adequate risk profiling of road cargoes.  Implementation timeframe as below:

 

Launching of the system: 1st Quarter of 2010 (rollout date will be announced later)

Transitional period: 18 months

Mandate e-ACI submission: mid 2011

 

To allow time for all parties concerned to prepare themselves for the e-ACI submissions, there will be a 18-month transitional period before mandating the e-ACI submissions for road cargoes in mid 2011. Now, the system is about being ready and the Customs has started large-scale publicity programmes to increase awareness.  See section D for details.  We would like to encourage your company to engage in early migration to ROCARS so as to overcome any teething problems as early as possible. 

 

B.  Prerequisite and key features of ROCARS workflow

To provide Members with a brief idea of how ROCARS works, below is the prerequisite and key features of ROCARS workflow for your perusal.

 

a.   All users (shippers, agents and truckers) of the ROCARS must register with the C&ED via designated Post Offices before they can submit the relevant information in the ROCARS.  See here (https://www.rocars.gov.hk/rs-portal/regIndex.do?locale=en_US) for details.  (Please note the registration has started on 22 January 2010.)

 

b.  Shippers and agents of the ROCARS must possess a valid digital certificate issued by the two recognized Certification Authorities (i.e. Digi-Sign Certification Services Limited or E-Mice Solutions (Hong Kong) Limited) for authentication purpose in the course of data submission.  Please refer to section E below in regard to the preferential rates of various services exclusively offered to HAFFA Members.

 

c.   A shipper or a freight forwarder acting as a shipper (or an agent of either party) provides a pre-defined set of cargo information to C&ED through ROCARS at least 30 minutes before the cargo consignment enters or exits Hong Kong by truck. 

 

d.  As an acknowledgment, ROCARS returns a Customs Cargo Reference Number (CCRN) for the cargo consignment to the shipper who would then pass it together with the cargo description to the relevant trucker;

 

e.   Not less than 30 minutes before his truck arrives at a land boundary control point (“LBCP”), the trucker does the ‘bundling’ work by providing to C&ED, through ROCARS, the following information –

     (i)       the CCRN of the cargo consignment; and

     (ii) his vehicle’s registration number.

    

     The system will direct the trucker to cross the boundary immediately or after 30 minutes.

 

f.   C&ED performs risk profiling on the cargo before a truck arrives at an LBCP and determines in advance whether the cargo needs to be inspected.

 

C.  Services channel selection guide for shippers and agents

To cater for different performance consideration of companies, the Customs provides three services channels for shippers and agents to submit advance information. They are:

i.   Direct input portal (on-line)

ii.  Batch upload portal (to ride on direct input portal)

iii. System-to-system interface

 

In response to HAFFA’s request, the Customs has compiled a guide for services channel selection so that Members can choose the appropriate service channel based on your current workload and performance expectation.  Some characteristics of the service channels are elaborated on in Section 5 of the guide to help the shippers and agents to select the appropriate ROCARS service channel assuming one user takes about 1 minute to prepare a consignment (p. 8).  The last section of this guide (p. 13) provides a summary of the hints for the users to consider.

 

For Members who choose to set up system-to-system interface, the Customs has also promulgated the relevant guidelines as well as the implementation instructions, XML schemas and code tables. All information can be downloaded from the ROCARS website: https://www.rocars.gov.hk/en/TechInfo.html.

 

D.  Training seminars and outreach team

To enable the industry stakeholders to get familiar with the operation of ROCARS, the Customs will arrange a series of training programmes for the users, which include:

 

a.  ROCARS Briefing Seminar (overall introduction to the ROCARS System)

     (The first Briefing Seminar will be held on 23 Nov 2009, more seminars to come.)

 

b.  ROCARS System Operation Training (Hands-on training)

     (The first System Operation Training will be held on 15 Dec 2009)

 

c.   ROCARS Train-the-Trainer Course

     (The first Train-the-Trainer course will be held on 17 Dec 2009)

 

Members are highly encouraged to enroll for the above-mentioned courses by completing the enrolment form which can be downloaded from https://www.rocars.gov.hk/en/Training.html and return it the Customs via fax: 2962 5258.  Please note in case the preferred class is full, the Customs will arrange seminar/training on other dates and you need to go to the ROCARS website to view the latest information.

 

In the meantime, to provide technical assistance to the industry stakeholders, the Customs has set up Customs Outreach Teams to proactively approach the industry users and assist them to migrate to ROCARS at an early stage.  If Members wish the Outreach Teams to pay an early visit to your company, please complete the reply slip which can be downloaded from https://www.rocars.gov.hk/en/Outreach.html and return it the Customs via fax: 2852 3228

 

E.  Exclusive offer of digital certificate services for HAFFA Members

As mentioned in Section B above, staff of your company must possess a valid digital certificate issued by recognized Certification Authority for authentication purpose in the course of data submission. To minimize the ROCARS financial impact to Members, in March 2009, HAFFA has written to request the two Certification Authorities (i.e. Digi-Sign Certification Services Limited and E-Mice Solutions (Hong Kong) Limited) to render exclusive offer of e-certificate services for HAFFA Members.  After several rounds of negotiation, we are delighted to announce that both authorities are willing to provide preferential rates of various services exclusively for HAFFA Members.  HAFFA Members please send email to enquiry@haffa.com.hk to obtain the information table for details.  For enquiry, you may contact the respective service provider as listed in the table and please quote “HAFFA Member” when you apply for the service.

 

F.  Useful Information

The ROCARS Government Website: http://www.rocars.gov.hk/

HAFFA – ROCARS Information Corner: http://www.haffa.com.hk/rs_content.html#ROCARS

 

Please note The Import and Export (Electronic Cargo Information) Regulation has been gazetted on 16 October 2009.  Kindly refer to the Import and Export (Electronic Cargo Information) Regulation. As forwarders may submit advanced data on behalf of shippers, under the said regulation, forwarders will be held liable if there is an offence. Taking this opportunity, Members are strongly recommended to make sure that your shippers do send booking or letter of instruction in writing for proper record purpose.

 

For any enquiry regarding ROCARS, please call the Customs hotline: 3669 0000.

 

~ End of News Extract ~