The test period is over

On 1 March 2015 the test period of the Electronic Freight Goods Tracking System (EKÁER) ended and now the system is up and running. In the test period the system’s shortcomings were revealed. The Association of Hungarian Logistics Service Centres (MLSZKSZ) welcomed the government’s decision to make changes in the EKÁER based on the experiences of the 2-month test run, in cooperation with representatives of the trade. MLSZKSZ president Zsolt Fülöp told that the government decree shows really well that talks with the ministry weren’t in vain. Károly Poór, marketing director of Pannon Szoftver Kft. called our attention to the difficulties in data providing. The administrative burden increased considerably for companies where there are at least 50 transports a day. They have to recruit 4-5 people to do the extra job or invest heavily in IT development. Mr Poór told that training programmes are available for learning to use the system, but they cost money and take up employee time. In early January Pannon Szoftver Kft. put its EKÁER IT software on the market. The way they see things now is that companies which have an ERP system try to solve the new problem there, even if it is more expensive than platform-independent solutions, because this way integration can be preserved. iData key account manager Hajnalka Joó thinks that market players didn’t have enough time to prepare for the system. Her company can assist firms by providing them with updated information if they register at iData. Since the company’s main profile is GPS tracking, many of their partners are affected by EKÁER. She revealed that many foreign companies don’t want to apply for an EKÁER number, some even said if using the system is compulsory, they stop transporting. Zsolt Csiszár, sales director of FM Logistic Hungary Kft. told our magazine that in his opinion the EKÁER system uses a very complicated data providing procedure and it generates extra costs for companies. EKÁER puts great administrative burden on FM Logistic too. The company has already prepared several solution packages for partners. Mr Csiszár mentioned: they have the actual transportation work done with subcontractors and due to this they have a difficult task matching the many different freights with the number plates at the right time, because the same cargo may be transported by 2-3 vehicles before it reaches its goal. All in all, the sales director’s opinion is that EKÁER’s objective is good but the new system only increases the burden on fair market players – companies with bad intentions will find the way to cheat the system. Zsolt Fogarasi, distribution manager of Pick Szeged Zrt. told our magazine that one of the biggest mistakes made when creating the new regulation was that they forgot about logistics service providers. Pick Szeged Zrt. is ready with the related IT development but still has to do lots of manual administrative work. The distribution manager mentioned one of the system’s mistakes: there is only three working day available for reporting the handing over of transports – it is impossible to comply with this in a domestic-domestic relation, providing accurate data automatically. In the case of import it is very difficult to learn the number plate of the vehicle which has just crossed the border. Mr Fogarasi believes it isn’t true that the National Tax and Customs Administration’s (NAV) recent ‘catches’ were made thanks to EKÁER. In his view the Electronic Freight Goods Tracking System can only give minimum assistance to the tax authorities in finding firms committing a VAT fraud.