Starting August 7, all port service providers, including customs brokers, shipping lines and agent, freight forwarders and truckers, will have to secure accreditation from the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA).
The new accreditation guidelines under PPA Administrative Order (AO) 06-2019 cover all corporations, partnerships, single proprietorships, or entities that intend to provide services at ports under PPA’s jurisdiction. The order also standardizes fees for the issuance of accreditation.
AO 06-2019 repeals AO 10-2018 (guidelines on the accreditation of port service providers) issued in October 2018.
AO 06-2019 specifically identifies services that will need accreditation: customs brokerage, shipping agent, shipping line, transport service/cargo forwarding/freight forwarding/hauling/trucking/shuttling/bus, roll-on/roll-off (Ro-Ro) services, and environmental service management (ESM), among them. These services were not identified by AO 10-2018, which had only required accreditation for “other ancillary services”.
AO 06-2019 also requires accreditation for bunkering, booking/ticketing office, canteen service, cargo checking service, cargo-handling service, cargo surveying service, chandling, cleaning service, engineering contractor, container repair, communication service, equipment hire, equipment repair, fumigation, laundering, lighterage/barging service, mooring/unmooring, passenger terminal service, pilotage service, port terminal service, parking/garage service, reproduction service, shop/store, towing/tugging service, vessel repair/maintenance, waste disposal service, water supplier, water taxi, weighbridge/truck scale, and other businesses and services that may be classified by PPA as port service. All these services were also specified by AO 10-2018 under an annex titled “port services”.
Accreditation under AO 06-2019 shall be valid in all ports under PPA’s jurisdiction.
Exempt from accreditation are private non-commercial port operators/owners and their port service providers, except cargo-handling and ESM for ports, provided that when such private non-commercial ports require their service providers to comply with the PPA accreditation certificate, said private ports shall notify PPA of such intent. Private commercial ports that will not comply with the new accreditation policy shall be subject to cancellation and revocation of its certificate of registration and permit to operate.
(For the full article, please visit https://www.portcalls.com/ppa-requires-accreditation-for-all-port-service-providers/)