CargoWise customs delays strand UK, Japan forwarders for 22 hours

WiseTech Global's CargoWise platform experienced significant messaging delays affecting customs processing for the United Kingdom and Japan on 28 October, with service disruption lasting approximately 22 hours from initial acknowledgment to full recovery confirmation. The outage prevented forwarders from processing customs entries normally throughout much of the working day, leaving their customers waiting for clearance updates while staff had minimal information to share about recovery timelines. The incident highlights a critical gap in operational transparency and escalation procedures.

One affected UK forwarder noted that while system outages are inevitable, the lack of actionable communication and a robust escalation process during the crisis created compounded customer frustration. This represents the second significant CargoWise outage in six months, raising questions about platform stability and the vendor's capacity to manage critical customs infrastructure. For supply chain professionals, this disruption underscores the risk of concentrating customs processing on a single technology platform and the operational cascades triggered when that platform fails.

The incident also signals a broader vulnerability in digital trade infrastructure, particularly for trades dependent on real-time messaging to customs authorities.