CBSA Message (TCC17-214) - REMINDER - Effective Immediately - Update on TCCU emergency after-hours service

Clients Affected: All clients who transmit data electronically

REMINDER - Effective Immediately

The Canada Border Services Agency would like to take this opportunity to remind all clients of the terms and conditions for utilizing the emergency after-hours service provided by the Technical Commercial Client Unit (TCCU).

The TCCU provides full technical support between the hours of 08h00 and 17h00 ET, Monday to Friday except holidays. Between the hours of 17h00 and 08h00 ET as well as on weekends and statutory holidays, the service is provided for emergency situations only.

What constitutes an emergency?

An emergency is a situation which prevents clients from transmitting data to the CBSA or receiving data from the CBSA and which cannot wait for resolution until the next business day.

Please refer to the following link which outlines the situations clients should contact the TCCU after-hours:  http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/eservices/services-eng.html

Starting January 1, 2018 the TCCU will no longer be accepting calls after hours for issues that do not constitute an emergency. Some examples include:

• Confirmation if CBSA received a transmission (transaction number, cargo control document, conveyance reference document, house bill)
• Confirmation on whether a transaction has been accepted
• Confirmation on the status of a transaction
• Confirmation if a Border Services Officer (BSO) has made a decision on a transmission (transaction number, cargo control document, conveyance reference document, house bill)

Managing non-emergency calls outside of business hours impedes our ability to troubleshoot and resolve legitimate system emergencies in a timely manner.

Alternatives

eManifest Notices

• Provides the notification of the acknowledgement and status of shipments as they move through the commercial import process (e.g. Matched, Not Matched, Document Not on File, Released, etc)
• Available to both Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Portal clients

Release Notification System (RNS) Messaging and RNS Status Query

• Offers a timely and efficient notification of CBSA release decisions by providing brokers, importers, carriers, freight forwarders and warehouse operators with electronic messages.
• Allows a client to transmit status query messages in order to find out the pre and post arrival status of a release transaction.
• Available for EDI clients only

For more information on CBSA Notices, please contact the TCCU at: tccu-ustcc@cbsa-asfc.gc.ca