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AMPS Penalty C382 - Highway

AMPS penalty C382 is a penalty issued by CBSA when they determine a carrier’s ACI declaration is not true, accurate and complete.  The penalty may be issued when the pre-arrival conveyance or cargo declaration is not based on the primary source documents (i.e., the bill of lading, contract of carriage etc.) associated with the shipment at the time of submission.

A penalty of $500 is applicable for a first level offense. A second level offense penalty is $750 and a 3rd level offense is $1500.  This penalty also includes a 30 day escalation clause where CBSA will not issue a second level penalty until 30 days have transpired after the initial Notice of Penalty Assessment was issued or the infraction occurred.  The 30 day escalation clause does not apply between the second and third level penalties.

The AMPS penalty can be triggered by a cargo examination, a review of the carrier’s books and records, an inadequate cargo description, a review of the ACI declaration by CBSA or and through  compliance monitoring.

Carriers could incur the penalty for failing to comply with the requirements of the Electronic Commerce Client Requirements Document or the guidelines published in Departmental Memorandums D3-4-2 or D3-1-1.

One of the challenges carriers can have with this penalty is ensuring the declaration is true, accurate and complete especially when some of the source data given to the carrier may be incorrect.  The real challenge may be in ensuring the books and records have been properly maintained to support the declaration.  This can become an issue especially when some declarations may be cobbled together using a combination of data including the bills of lading, load sheets, e-mail, contracts, customs invoices, confirmations of sale, packing slips, internet searches, Canada Post address searches etc.

CBSA had issued a number of penalties prior to May 29, 2017 before introducing an Interim Turnaround Policy CN 17-19.  Between May 30, 2017 and November 3, 2020 CBSA allowed carriers to return to the United States if they didn't comply with the ACI requirements and highway carriers who still crossed were subject to AMPS penalties. A graph below indicates the number of penalties and amounts issued to carriers in all modes between January 1, 2016 and June 30, 2020.

CBSA AMPS Penalty C382 Graph