THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) will again accredit companies that will serve as its third-party service providers that will monitor cargoes in transit using a new technology, which would reduce the requirements but may add cost to the shippers.

According to a draft of a Customs administrative order on the use of global positioning system (GPS), BOC will accredit service providers, which will be allowed to equip transit cargo and their transport carriers with the proper equipment.

“The proposed GPS system should be sufficiently secured to prevent the unauthorized access to the tracking and monitoring process and the data that the system generates,” according to the proposed order, which is still being reviewed by various stakeholders.

These groups include importers, exporters, brokers, port and warehouse operators, shipping lines, airlines and their agents, forwarders, haulers, transport carriers and truckers.

The said service providers are an entirely different set from the three firms that were accredited earlier by BOC.

BOC is using the said technology in a move to slowly increase the level of compliance with the provisions of the Revised Kyoto Convention, an international treaty on customs operations, on the treatment of transit cargo.

The Philippines is not yet a signatory to the said treaty, but there are already efforts in the Senate for the country to ratify the convention.

During the previous years, there were already several proposals from various American firms to the agency, the government’s second-largest revenue earner, to use a technology that can track and monitor the movement of cargoes from the port to their respective warehouses.

These, however, only apply a tamper-proof seal to the containers and can be detected by authorities when tampered with, but not monitor the trucks on real time.

This time, the providers are also sought by BOC to place a “customs seal” to all transit cargo, with the service providers putting a GPS-equipped clamping seal to container cargoes. For break-bulk cargoes, selected packages shall be sealed with tapes equipped with barcode that matches with the barcode on the transit permit.

BOC will create a committee which will accredit GPS providers which will be allowed to equip transit cargo and the transport carriers, with the required GPS capability.

Among the duties of the GPS provider is to propose a system that would allow real-time tracking by BOC of the transit cargo and its land transport carrier.

It must have a system capable of alerting BOC in monitoring any deviations from predetermined routes and must have the capability to store historical data of transit voyage from the port of discharge to its final destination.

“The GPS provider should provide BOC at no cost with the necessary equipment needed to effectively perform the above tracing and monitoring functions,” the draft order said.

The said move is in line with the United States implementation also of GPS-enabled seals on scanned shipments that could be monitored by its Department of Homeland Security.

Various funding agencies, such as the United States for International Development, have been pushing for BOC for years to implement several measures that employ new technology to curb smuggling in the country.