Before the end of the year, trucking companies carrying goods across the San Diego-Mexico border will be required to file their manifests electronically with U.S. Customs and Border Protection — an effort to improve security and streamline the often lengthy process.

“You better get onboard early when there are a lot of us to help you,” advised agency representative Dale Wilson to a group of more than 120 people attending an e-Manifest Training Seminar at Downtown’s Holiday Inn on the Bay.

The Otay Mesa Chamber of Commerce sponsored the all-day seminar (and one the next day in Tijuana) for representatives of trucking companies, customs brokers, importers, exporters and maquiladoras. Software company representatives stationed themselves outside the seminar, ready to sell software that some might need for connection to the program.

Eventually, everyone in the trade community will be involved in the Automated Commercial Environment program, one of the requirements of the Trade Act of 2002. ACE is being instituted in phases, with full implementation expected in 2011. “It’s going to change the way the companies do business on the border,” says Steve Zisser, president of the Otay Chamber.

Under the e-manifest program, trucking companies can submit electronic manifests about cargo information to the federal agency through a secure data portal or electronic data interchange procedures before their trucks arrive at the U.S. border. In addition to details about the shipment, the e-manifest includes information on drivers and passengers and descriptions of the vehicles and other equipment such as trailers.

“It will put a lot more responsibility on the carriers, as it should be,” says Ora Weldy, a representative of Mary G. Hutchinson Brokers in Tecate, one of the attendees. Her company’s client trucking companies go in and out of Mexico. “However, our clients may not have the means to do what customs is requiring for the trucking companies and that’s what we have to look into.”

The seminar gave trucking company representatives the opportunity to activate e-manifest accounts. Firms represented included Sanyo Custom Brokerage Inc., Leviton Manufacturing, Plantronics Inc., Mexamerica, Atlas, Lucar Trucking, Lizarraga Freight Forwarding, Sectra LLC and CrimsonLogic. Seminar co-sponsors were the San Diego Brokers Association, California Trucking Association, Asociación de la Industria Maquiladora and Asociación de Industriales de la Mesa de Otay.

— Manny Cruz