From September 1st, UK exporters to the EU whose goods are cleared in France need to be aware of the Obligatory Logistics Envelope (ELO).
The ELO is designed to group all of the customs documents needed for crossing the border in one place. This means traders will have one single barcode that will speed up processing similar to the British goods movement reference (GMR) system.
Instead of a driver or operator having multiple forms and declarations, everything is brought together digitally, and the barcode has all the details from import and export declarations.
At the moment, drivers often have to wait at the port while multiple documents—like import declarations, export paperwork, ENS or transit forms—are checked individually. It’s slow, repetitive and prone to errors.
With ELO, all those references are merged into one digital envelope. That means the driver only needs to present a single barcode. This barcode acts as the key to all the customs data behind the scenes.
The following information will be included in the ELO:
· Export declarations
· Import declarations
· Transit declarations
· Entry Summary Declarations (ENS)
· Information about goods requiring sanitary or phytosanitary (SPS) checks, or special customs regimes such as Transports Internationaux Routiers (TIR) or ATA Carnets.
It is not the driver’s responsibility to create the barcode under the system. Economic operators, including hauliers or freight forwarders, must appoint an “ELO creator”, who brings together the customs declarations and information required from logistics partners and compiles them into the ELO system via French Customs’ Prodouane interface.
Safety and security (S&S) declarations as well as other key documents are included under the system, which is designed specifically for road traffic, meaning roll-on roll-off (RORO) freight.