BIFA Awards
How checks in advance can cut border delays
Customs Compliance Award
CNS has served the port community and logistics
In recognition of its engagement with authorities to develop new processes to streamline the border, ALS Customs Services won the inaugural BIFA Customs Compliance Award
such as weights, origins, values and supplier statements. Only then does ALS submit the declaration. Unfortunately a worrying trend is emerging where some companies are using AI providers to look at previous declarations and guess what is required for a current declaration in specific fields, such as CPC. This, said Mutton, is totally non-compliant. So far, such behaviour is going largely undetected owing to widespread misunderstandings about how AI and large language models (LLM) work. AI concerns Mutton explained: “Clients must confirm the classification of goods, but some service providers are doing this via AI to cope with the increase in regulations and complexities post-Brexit. They’re catching up, but until companies are audited there’s no visibility of their using AI to do this. There will be fines and penalties eventually for companies that aren’t compliant.” He is clear that taking advantage of grey areas until the authorities step in is “not the way to do business” and is certainly not how things are done at ALS. Instead: “What we are doing is working with UK authorities, and our EU connections, to develop and implement revolutionary technology solutions such as blockchain-secured first-hand data, that will reduce or remove border delays. “The future of AI in our sector demands innovation and detailed process knowledge. That is what we constantly strive to provide.” sector with leading-edge digital systems since 1986. CNS designs industry-first solutions, such as its Port Community System and Customs Declaration Management Software, to simplify and streamline trade. CNS pioneers innovative solutions tailored to clients’ commercial and operational needs, ensuring regulatory compliance with unmatched expertise.
A LS participated in a pilot with HMRC and the International Centre for Digital Trade and Innovation (iC4DTI) last year, which aimed to show how the new Electronic Trade Documents Act can enable Trusted Key Data to be provided to authorities before goods arrive. Allowing compliance and risk checks to be performed in advance could see the majority of shipments flowing through a green lane, reducing delays. Not only could this remove the border problems caused by Brexit, but it could be replicated in Europe and beyond. Jason Mutton, managing director UK and Ireland at ALS, revealed: “We are now in discussion to extend the HMRC/iC4DTI pilot to a live trial. It’s an initiative with extraordinary potential. “Having this involvement with government means we can shape what comes in the future. It’s of no significant benefit or commercial advantage to us, but it allows us to use our experience to benefit the customs service sector.” Human element While technology is clearly beneficial to customs processes, there are – and should be – limits to its use, Mutton said. “Customs requires an individual to authorise the declaration, so a human element is always required,” Mutton explained. “Of course, AI reduces the human element, increasing efficiency and reducing cost for the customer, but for
“ We are now in discussion to extend the HMRC/iC4DTI pilot to a live trial. It’s an initiative with extra- ordinary potential – Jason Mutton, ALS Customs Services
customs compliance we cannot use AI to ‘guess’ how fields are completed.” ALS operates a hybrid business with declarants as well as data processors for its AI data extraction tools. “In future we might have six AI data processors to one declarant who verifies the data,” Mutton observed. “We’re evolving with the requirements that AI is bringing to the market, but we need to ensure that automation does not reduce compliance.” About 80% of the data coming in to ALS is processed by AI data extraction. It goes to a declarant for ‘Human in the Loop’ review functions specifically for Customs compliance, checking information
18 | August 2026
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