Customs broker outage sparks border delays again

Commercial truck drivers faced delays at Canada-U.S. border crossings this week after Customs broker Livingston International experienced a system outage, following a similar incident four months ago in August. Dan Ovsey, director of public relations and marketing communications at Livingston International confirmed that on Dec.

5, the broker began experiencing connectivity issues within some applications after the completion of a data center migration. "As of 4:30 p.m. on Dec.

8, we can confirm that we are experiencing a systems outages in certain parts of our business that has led to the inability to process customs brokerage entries for some cargo crossing between the U.S. and Canada. In response, we have initiated contingencies to process entries as best as possible; however, some cargo may continue to be delayed.  We are concurrently investigating to determine the root cause of the disruption," he told TruckNews.com via email. 

"We remain in close communication with the Canada Border Services Agency and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, as well as our clients in response to these system outages.

We regret any inconvenience this has caused our clients and members of the trucking carrier community," Ovsey added. A large carrier's Customs official who spoke to TruckNews.com on condition of anonymity, said Livingston had a network shutdown that continues to drag into the week, causing major headaches.

Manual release of freight

"The system has been down for four days, and numerous carriers are feeling the pain," the official said. They have had to bond shipments and do manual releases that can take hours depending on the lineup at the border.

He added drivers are facing Hours of Service issues and customers are seeing delays in receiving freight. He added that they were told electronic releases were occurring Dec.

8 but were waiting seven hours to see a release. "Their tracker does not work, no one is responding to emails, you are in the dark," he said. He said drivers are losing their wages.

Numerous loads have had to be rebooked, messing up driver schedules. He called it "a big mess with no end in sight." Beverley Hudd, of Fairway Transport based in Ancaster, Ont., said drivers must clear Customs manually at border entry points.

"It is disappointing and can't happen.

We have to make them accountable for this.

It is not fair to the drivers, they suffer the most," Hudd said.