The Philippine Shippers’ Bureau (PSB) and the Philippine International Seafreight Forwarders Association (PISFA) recently signed an agreement that establishes an exclusive lane (E-Lane) for PISFA members seeking to renew their accreditation with PSB.
PISFA member applications filed under E-Lane, including those involving additional freight forwarding categories, will now have a three-day approval period compared to the standard period of one month.
The agreement was signed last Thursday by PSB executive director Atty. Pedro Vicente Mendoza and PISFA president Irene Manguiat-Tan during the association’s first general membership meeting at the Marriot Hotel in Pasay City.
The deal also institutionalizes the conduct of continuing education among forwarders on such topics as basic freight forwarding, basic multimodal transportation, and intermediate multimodal transportation. The courses are expected to be launched in May.
“I hope this will open up more partnership between government and the private sector. This is what we really call public-private partnership,” Mendoza said after the signing.
The agreement also delegates to PISFA the power to mediate over disputes among its members. This arrangement, however, does not stop PSB from taking over any dispute if it deems necessary.
“We are actually sharing the authority of PSB to PISFA with this, so we are hoping that PISFA members will support us,” Mendoza added.
Manguiat-Tan, for her part, said E-Lane is only one of several measures PISFA is undertaking this year.
“We have lined up several more in order to help forwarders,” she noted, including a discussion on charges with international shipping lines; on local destination charges with consolidators; and on the submission of late manifest and penalties with the Bureau of Customs.
