[By NBC-1TV H. J Yook]Descartes Systems Group (Nasdaq:DSGX) (TSX:DSG), the global leader in uniting logistics-intensive businesses in commerce, announced that OHL, a leading global 3PL and freight forwarder, is enhancing its security operations with Descartes' cloud-based Air Cargo Advance Screening (ACAS) solution.

“We‘ve been successfully using Descartes’ Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) and Advanced Commercial Information (ACI) compliance solutions to manage security filings for shipments into the United States and Canada for a number of years. Working with Descartes to deploy their ACAS solution was a natural extension,” said Steve Hutter, Director of Aviation Security at OHL. “The key benefit is that we‘re able to repurpose our existing air messaging traffic moving via Descartes’ Global Logistics Network (GLN) for use within the ACAS solution.”

ACAS was designed to provide Customs and Border Protection (CBP) with more time to analyze security filing data for US-bound air cargo shipments prior to the shipment being loaded on the aircraft. By receiving information about the parties and commodities involved in an inbound air shipment earlier from the forwarder as opposed to the carrier, CBP hopes to be able to better identify high-risk shipments destined for the United States. In addition, the program will speed up the movement of lower-risk shipments and leave more resources to focus on higher-risk shipments for additional screening.

Descartes‘ ACAS solution was built based on consultative efforts with leading forwarders within Descartes’ community and joint meetings between Descartes, CBP and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The solution complies with the requirements of the ACAS pilot project, which performs security threat threshold targeting using pre-departure air cargo information for CBP and TSA.

“Being able to leverage the house bill information automatically received by the GLN from a forwarder‘s enterprise system and use it to file to CBP directly, streamlines the entire filing process and increases data quality,” said Eric Bossdorf, Vice President Global Logistics Network at Descartes. “We’re pleased that our broad suite of compliance solutions for the air cargo industry is helping to make the logistics operations of leaders like OHL more efficient.”