The Association Professionnelle des Transitaires commonly called, APT, regroups the main logistics providers of Mauritius. Membership of the APT is open to corporate bodies duly registered in the Republic of Mauritius and exercising a full time activity directly linked with the objects of the APT. Activities include, but are not limited to, Clearing and Forwarding agents, NVOCCs, Freight Station operators, Warehouse operators, Multi-modal transport operators and courier operators.

APT has registered complaints about the number of errors leading to Customs offence reported through formal or informal meeting with its members. This is one of the factors delaying the clearance of goods in general as employees of the logistics sector are not fully aware of the latest development and changes in the procedures and regulations of the customs.

In this context, the Association Professionnelle des Transitaires (APT) in collaboration with the HRDC mounted a training programme to tackle this issue.

The objectives are:

• Enhance the capacity of existing employees working directly with customs in the logistics sector;
• Aim in reducing the number of errors which can be time consuming and very costly in this field;
• Help facilitating the transactions of end customers by speeding up the clearance and delivery of their goods; and
• Contribute efficiently in the global economy of Mauritius by the logistics sector.

The training programme comprised:

• theoretical components;
• practical exercises; and
• Sharing of experience from guest speakers (Actual custom officers, MCCI, experience APT members).