Assessment of the effectiveness of customs goods clearance logistical information flow Dar es salaam customs clearance

This study seeks to assess the effectiveness of Customs goods clearance logistical information flows by drawing examples from Customs and Excise Department of TRA as the main area of focus since it plays the role of a hub in the customs clearance process. Business Logistics is now an area of growing importance due to its strategic essence in increased productivity on Customs goods clearance information flow. Logistical data interchange effectiveness can be enhanced by the awareness on the application of e-commerce. Despite of its being perceived simplicity, awareness is a very challenging issue in the application of e-commerce together with familiarity on the using of the interne in doing business .The traditional manual data interchange needs transformation i.e. BPR, a dramatic change from paper based to EDI. Case study methodology through participant observation guided by research questions and in-depth interview to Customs Managers was used to explore more information on Customs clearance process. It was supplemented by questionnaire responses from six companies sampled to represent AEOs. Effectiveness problem of Customs clearance logistical data interchange was the key to the findings. The findings imply lack of e-commerce application awareness to Tanzanian business community, information flow process challenges and bottlenecks. These should be well addressed so as to harness the feasible opportunities in an integrated logistical EDI environment which will result in the effectiveness on logistical data interchange for increased efficiencies on Customs clearance.