CBP Opens a 24-Hour Truck Export Manifest Test With Nine Carriers

U.S. Customs and Border Protection begins a voluntary test on October 23 in which nine truck carriers file export manifest data electronically instead of handing over paper at the crossing. The Federal Register notice, published September 23 at 91 FR 60383, sets two deadlines: limited export manifest data at least 24 hours before the truck departs the United States, and the complete manifest no later than two hours before it reaches the final port of export. CBP circulated the same terms to the trade as CSMS #70005765 on the same day. The test runs about two years, and carriers apply by email.

Nine carriers out of the thousands running to Canada and Mexico is a pilot, not a rule change. Nothing about it is mandatory yet, and a vehicle moving next month is very unlikely to ride with one of the nine. What it signals is where truck exports are headed: away from a document presented at the booth, and toward a filing clock that starts before the truck is loaded.

If you ship cars across a land border, you already live on a clock like that, and it is longer than 24 hours.

The transport angle

Sending a collector car to a Canadian auction, a restoration shop in Ontario, or a buyer in British Columbia is a truck move. It is not the container-and-port process covered in our international auto transport guide, and the paperwork is different.

The rule that catches owners is 19 CFR 192.2, which governs the export of used self-propelled vehicles. The documentation "must be submitted to Customs at least 72 hours prior to export," and at a land border "the vehicle must be presented to Customs at the time of exportation." For a U.S.-titled car that documentation is the original certificate of title or a certified copy, plus two complete copies. A foreign-titled car needs the original ownership document with an English translation, plus two copies. An untitled car needs a manufacturer's statement of origin, dealer invoice, junk certificate or bill of sale, depending on the circumstances, plus two copies. Port directors decide where those documents have to be presented, so the location is port-specific rather than universal.

Three things follow from that for anyone booking an enclosed move north.

The pickup date is not the export date. The title package has to be with CBP three full days before the truck reaches the crossing. A Thursday pickup and a Friday crossing does not work unless the paperwork went in days earlier. Build the documentation window first and schedule the truck around it, not the other way round.

The crossing is an appointment, not an opportunity. Because the vehicle has to be presented at the time of exportation, the driver cannot simply take whatever lane is moving. On a multi-car enclosed load, that pins the whole trailer to one crossing window. This is part of why cross-border single-vehicle moves price and schedule differently from a domestic lane, and why the transit estimates in our transit time guide do not carry over cleanly to an export.

A missed filing is a missed week. There is no expedited path back. If the 72 hours were not clear, the car waits, storage accrues, and the carrier's next northbound slot may be days out.

What to confirm before you book

Ask the broker three specific questions and get the answers in writing.

First, who files the export paperwork: the carrier, a customs broker, or you. Enclosed carriers that run cross-border regularly have a process. Ones that do not will hand it back to you late.

Second, which port of export and which CBP location accepts the title package. That is set locally and it determines your real deadline.

Third, whether the carrier's cargo certificate covers the vehicle once it is outside the United States. Territorial wording varies, and the limit that matters is the one in force at the moment of damage. Our enclosed shipping insurance guide covers how to read a certificate and what to ask a carrier in our broker network to produce.

If the car is going to a Canadian sale, treat the consignment deadline and the 72-hour export deadline as two separate dates and work backward from the earlier one. The auction transport prep checklist covers the rest of the consignment timeline, and the enclosed transport overview explains what the equipment itself changes. Figures on our cost pages are domestic and do not include customs handling or brokerage fees.

The pilot itself will not touch your shipment this year. The 72-hour rule will.