iTECH: Border Crossings: Aiming for A Paperless Process

The U.S. Customs Service has been accepting voluntary enrollment from truckers for its Free And Secure Trade (FAST) program, which is designed to expedite transport between the United States and Canada while beefing up security.

According to the Customs Service, “FAST is the first completely paperless cargo release mechanism put into place by U.S. Customs,” and the “first step toward account-based processing.”

In the near future, FAST enrollees will enjoy electronic pre-clearance at border crossings utilizing a variant of the intelligent transportation systems technology used for pass-through toll collection throughout the U.S. ITS relies on short-range dedicated radio transmissions between a transponder on the vehicle and readers along the roadside and at the crossings.

For the full story, see the March/April Issue of iTECH, which appeared as a supplement in the March 10 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.