Revolutionizing customs processes with smart data

Using smart data and artificial intelligence can save time for overstretched customs brokers and agents, allowing them to focus on customer support and compliance. “If you look at the day to day, customs brokerage is a combination of data entry, governance and control, and customer service,” Nisarg Mehta , chief technology officer and co-founder of intelligent logistics platform Raft , told Air Cargo Next . “The balance of people’s time is spent on data entry as compared to governance and customer service, which are arguably more important.” Benefits for supply chain Smart data , AI and machine-learning automation can complete lower value-add tasks more quickly and on one platform, which allows great transparency for customers. “You can see [the data], monitor it, work on it in a holistic way, and then spend the rest of the time auditing data, auditing processes, making sure that nothing untoward has happened, that everything is as it should be and compliant, and keep customers informed and part of the process,” Mehta said. Many freight forwarders have a custom brokerage arm, which is both a profitable business and a costly one due to the amount of manual data entry, according to Mehta. “The natural sort of positive externalities of [increased automation] is the custom teams within freight forwarders will get more efficient … pick up more customers, build better relationships with their customers, which will just foster a better level of service in the entire industry,” he said. Customs automation can also drive freight forwarders to implement automation elsewhere in their businesses. “It’s similar sort of benefits that they can gain from these technologies in customs,” Lionel van der Walt , Raft’s chief growth officer, told Air Cargo Next . “You can have [those benefits] in those different areas, so you see this broader sort of impact in digitalization that takes place.” Multiple National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America members already use Raft technology, according to NCBFAA Executive Vice President Megan Montgomery . “With the brokerage industry getting more complex every day, real-world transformative solutions like Raft are vital to the future success of our industry,” Montgomery said in a release. No downside to automation [caption id="attachment_57136042" align="alignright" width="200"] Nisarg Mehta, chief technology officer and co-founder of Raft (Photo/Raft)[/caption] Automation is about using workers’ time more effectively, Mehta said. “There are no negatives around it, because, contrary to what many people think, this is not about replacing people,” he said. “Everyone is always overstressed. They don’t have enough time to do their day job. This is actually freeing up time and headspace.” Mehta stressed the necessity of keeping employees involved in the process as they bring institutional knowledge. While he does not believe there are negatives that come with automation, he did stress the importance of implementing automation smoothly across systems. For this you need a plan, the right workplace culture and the right technology. “You want to have a project plan that is very specific and detailed, that starts small and builds up over time,” Mehta said. “If you have a relatively conservative team, you don’t want to just go zero to 100 on day one. If you have a tech-savvy, tech-enabled team already, you don’t want to slow roll it. So having the right plan that is ambitious but also realistic and baked into the way in which you work as a company really helps.” On the horizon Raft works to automate the retrieval of data from emails, spreadsheets and documents such as commercial invoices, packing lists and air waybills — information that is required as part of a customs declaration. “We’ve built intelligence to bring that into the platform and reduce the data-entry headache,” Mehta said. Mehta hinted that Raft will be unveiling some new tech related to machine learning in the coming months. He expects every freight forwarder to be using AI and machine-learning automation within the next five to 10 years. “We’re at this interesting point in the evolution of the industry where it’s this … perfect moment, if you will, where people are ready for change,” he said. “They know that there is new technology that can help them, that can bring about a lot of positive change, and the technology is ready. In the past, people have always known that the need exists, but the technology wasn’t ready. “But, we’re at this fantastic moment right now where both have come together,” he added. “So, there is a lot of demand for automation and the right cultural sort of mindset.”

Revolutionizing customs processes with smart data

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