RCAR-Regulated Air Cargo Agents Regime

[ELYEO]

Hello,

Did anyone in this group come across anything related to the RCAR-
Regulated Air Cargo Agents Regime from Singapore Police Force? How
will this affect the shipper?

Thanks.

Regards,
Yeo

[Tom O'Donnell]

Hi Yeo - the RCAR is being run and administered by the Singapore
Police Force, Airport Police and the Civil Aviation Authority. In
short, from what I have heard, forwarders who utilise passenger
flights for cargo, are liable to have 100% inspection on this cargo,
unless they agree to participate in this scheme. This is in place
since April 1st 2008, with frankly very little notice given.

If freight forwarders participate, then the inspection rate drops to
around 5%, with less chance of cargo delay. Obviously from a Shipper's
perspective, this is the most critical point. As part of the
legislation, The SPF (Singapore Police Force) requires the
RCA to provide an updated list of Known Consignors for the purpose of
audits and inspections. There is a need for the "known consignor" to
declared some information to us as the cargo agent. If "known
consignor" forms are not returned, it may be possible that the RCAR
auditors may choose to audit these consignors for the lack of
information.

One challenge which I have seen as a consignor or shipper is that I
use multiple forwarders for my business and to date, three have
contacted me to complete the known consignor form, with many more no
doubt coming. From an administration perspective this is quite
inefficient, and am not sure the process has been fully thought
through.

hope this helps...

Tom O'D.

[Logistics Conduit]

Yeo,

Launched in April of this year it should come into effect in October.

It should essentially apply to Freight Forwarder's who operate in
Changi and the process should be transparent to shippers like yourself
although I do expect that there will be a nominal charge in our local
handling charges.

There is some information provided on the Singapore Police Force
website (although this is not very extensive) at this stage but it
does give an idea of the MO.

http://www.spf.gov.sg/rcar/rcarfaqs.htm

At the end of the day it should be quite seamless after a couple
months of operation as the RCAR does not require piecemeal checking of
cargo but assumes and places the onus on the cargo agent to ensure
that they security measures they have implemented are complied with
and will be enforced through random checks.

I hope this information helps and if anyone has anything more, please
do not hesitate to share it with the group.

Regards / ED