Impatex started as a UK Customs software supplier in 1980 and has led the field in this specialised area ever since, pioneering ‘Intelligent’ Direct Trader Input (DTI) in the UK nearly 30 years ago.

In 1995 our Customs software was the first to incorporate the UK Customs Tariff, some 10 years before any other supplier and even before HMSO made available their own electronic Customs Tariff.

Since 2002, Customs Manager (CM) has combined its leading frontier Customs software with Duty Management and Customs Processing with Economic Impact (CPEI), making it the natural choice for major ‘Corporate’ forwarders in the UK, most of whom already use Customs Manager, and can now start gradually migrating to its new Integrated Customs for Europe (ICE) in the UK and later throughout Europe.

For independent forwarding companies that require integrated frontier Customs with freight management, warehousing and CRM, then NetFreight can replace a multiplicity of disparate systems.

Impatex are no strangers to European Customs software.

We had a Danish and Dutch version of our Customs software over 20 years ago when the Single Administrative Document (SAD) was introduced in 1988, but the national differences with the data was so great that it was not viable to continue to address those markets. We did though continue to supply an Irish version of our Customs software until 1994 when the single market was introduced and there was no need for any Customs clearances on the border.

Since SAD Harmonisation was introduced in 2008/9, making most of the data elements the same and electronic messages mandatory across the EU, we have been developing our Integrated Customs for Europe (ICE) software, aimed at the larger, multinational ‘Corporate’ forwarders, initially for NCTS, EMCS and ICS and now for frontier exports and imports, and then Duty Management and Customs Processing with Economic impact (CPEI).

NetFreight already incorporates frontier import and export Customs for the UK, which is fully integrated with its freight management, warehousing and CRM functions.

In 2010, we embarked on the first phase of providing a link from NetFreight to US Customs with the interface to the Automated Export System (AES), which is now being used by all of our US customers instead of having to ‘double-key’ the data directly into AES via the web.

In 2012, we expect to link NetFreight to the Automated Broker Interface (ABI) for US imports, thereby providing the same frontier Customs capability in the US as we do in the UK.

Although not a US Customs requirement, the Import Control System (ICS) introduced in January 2011 throughout the EU will affect US freight companies who will have to pay the airlines and shipping lines to transmit their security data. However, Netfreight now incorporates a facility  to transmit the Master Air-Waybill (MAWB) and House Air-Waybill (HAWB) data as FWB and FHL messages respectively, for which the airlines will charge far less than a paper MAWB and HAWB, which saves on your out goings and increases your profit margins.