Authors : E. Bhero and A.J. Hoffman
Abstract: Numerous calls have been made for Africa to improve the efficiency of her trade corridors. The calls have been predicated on a number of reasons including an understanding that in this modern and globalised world, an efficient trade corridor promotes economic competitiveness of a country or region. Delays associated with customs processes, especially with cross-border trade has been singled out as one of the major sources of long delays, hence, the decrease in the efficiency of Africa’s trade corridors. The aim of the simulation-based study in this study was to investigate the possible impact of using GPS-based data on efficiency of custom’s cargo risk assessment, management and control. The simulation of using real-time GPS-based monitoring data was combined with a posteriori controls. The results show that, infraction detection improvement of at least 27.45% is possible when only 14.9% of cargo is intrusively inspected compared to intrusively inspecting 20.6% of cargo when using a posteriori procedures as proposed in some published articles. The results show that, using a posteriori risk assessment procedure together with GPS-based real-time cargo trucks monitoring data and other technologies such as RFID systems can significantly improve the efficiency of customs processes including infraction detection.
E. Bhero and A.J. Hoffman, 2020. Enhancing Customs Risks Management System with GPS Data: A Simulation Approach. Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 15: 2014-2024.