Published on: 18/07/2007 09:09:00

Over 500 freight forwarding staff from all over the UK attended the recent series of 10 SAD H roadshows staged by leading Customs software supplier Impatex. They went away clearly relieved.

Impatex held the roadshows in an effort to stem concerns over the industry's readiness to implement the new Harmonised SAD (Single Administrative Document), following scaremongering statements made by another software supplier, who claimed publicly that nobody would be ready for SAD H.

Just days before the roadshows began, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) announced that SAD H Day, originally scheduled for July 1st, was to be postponed until further notice. But Impatex still went ahead with its seminars in order to reassure its customers.

Says Impatex MD Peter Day: The general view expressed by those who saw our system working with the new SAD format was "So what's all the fuss about?"

The whole exercise was costly and time-consuming for us, but was certainly worthwhile. Prior to the Roadshows, many of our customers contacted us with concerns over SAD H, stirred up by the negative statements in the press. But, since we ran the Roadshows, we have had no more calls from customers worried about SAD H. A few non-customers who attended have now expressed an interest in our software, because we are obviously ready for SAD H - whenever it finally arrives.

HMRC is now planning on SAD H going live on 1st October, with the full HMUT dataset being available for testing from 1st July. Impatex will spend July testing its software, for release in early August, giving customers a full two months to acclimatise before the switch to SAD H. During that time, Impatex customers will be able select whether they handle each Customs entry in the new or old format, and in the event of any problems with SAD H as a whole, they will be able to switch back to the old format without any changes to their systems.

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