Dealing with Freight at LAX- a whole lot slower...

[MaryHM]

A few months ago, LAX instituted inspection of all air cargo. This means that we have to sit and wait while a box or all boxes (depending on the airline) are opened up for inspection prior to be allowed to be shipped out. It's a huge slowdown and pain in the a$$. They made us all become "known shippers" after 9/11- visits to our facilities to make sure we're really fish people. You'd think that would be enough...

Now, we have a new problem. I don't have all of the details, just snippets Morgan (husband/LAX drop off man) has caught. Apparently Fish & Wildlife is in some kind of legal trouble with someone (Indian tribe?). Their website has been shutdown. Our customs brokers can no longer email the clearance details to the inspectors- everything has to be hand delivered. THIS IS SLOWING DOWN IMPORTS CONSIDERABLY. Fiji ran 3 hours late the other day because of it.

If anyone can come up with the details on this, I'd appreciate it.

 

[mkirda]

If anyone can come up with the details on this, I'd appreciate it.

If it is what I think it is, it is related to a lawsuit brought by an Indian tribe against the Department of the Interior.

Of course, I cannot find the CNN article I read, nor the NPR report I heard on this subject... AND the DOI website is down...

Luckily, Google has one cached, so you can see the announcement:

"The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) responsibility is the administration and management of 55.7 million acres of land held in trust by the United States for American Indians, Indian tribes, and Alaska Natives. There are 562 federal recognized tribal governments in the United States. Developing forestlands, leasing assets on these lands, directing agricultural programs, protecting water and land rights, developing and maintaining infrastructure and economic development are all part of the agency's responsibility. In addition, the Bureau of Indian Affairs provides education services to approximately 48,000 Indian students.

The BIA website as well as the BIA mail servers have been made temporarily unavailable due to the Cobell Litigation. Please continue to check from time to time. We have no estimate on when authorization will be given to reactivate these sites."

Taken from:
http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:Ti ... n&ie=UTF-8

FWS is under the Department of the Interior, so the EDI transmissions of data to FWS cannot take place right now. Hence the paperwork required to be walked over directly to FWS.

I'd hate to be a Customs Broker right now.
Your broker can probably give you more details, if necessary.

Regards.
Mike Kirda

 

[Anonymous]

Wow, thats pretty harsh Mary. Up here the only airline doing that is South West and they only do it at their own will (its not mandated for total inspection). I hear in Florida South West is doing the same.

 

[MaryHM]

Yeah, they've really tightened security at LAX since that terrorist threat last Christmas concerning the plane that was headed to LAX from overseas. They cancelled some flights and stuff because of it, and now LAX is on "MEGA HIGH EXTRA HEAVY DUTY FIRE ENGINE RED ALERT".