PARS — Pre-Arrival Review System
PARS is the Canada Border Services Agency process that lets a customs broker submit release information before a truck reaches the Canadian border, so the shipment can be reviewed and released on arrival rather than held at the booth.
In plain terms.
A PARS number is a barcode you put on the paperwork of a load heading into Canada. The carrier generates it, the customs broker uses it to file the release information with CBSA ahead of the truck, and the border officer scans it when the driver arrives. If everything was filed correctly and reviewed in time, the truck is released and keeps moving.
The number itself is your carrier code followed by a unique reference you assign. That matters more than it sounds: the number has to be unique per shipment, it has to reach your broker before the truck does, and it has to match what is physically on the paperwork in the cab. Most PARS problems are one of those three things going wrong, not a customs decision going against you.
Who deals with it
The carrier generates the number and puts it on the paperwork. The customs broker files against it. The driver presents it at the primary inspection booth.
When it shows up
Before the truck leaves for the border — the filing needs to be in and reviewed ahead of arrival, not while the driver is in the queue.
What goes wrong
A duplicate number, a barcode the scanner cannot read, a broker who never received the paperwork, or a load that changed after the filing went in. All of them look the same to a driver: sent to secondary inspection.
How Lanexa handles it.
This lives in eManifest, where 29 capabilities are live.