Declar: successor to e-dec Web, or for now just a new transport tool?

With Declar, the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security (BAZG) announces a new, free web application in the ePortal. The official roadmap explicitly calls Declar the successor to e-dec Web. That raises a clear expectation: companies should be able to file import and export goods declarations without commercial customs software.

The current feature set does not yet meet that expectation. Declar cannot currently create a goods declaration and therefore no actual customs clearance. For now the application only captures a transport declaration, links it to an existing Passar goods declaration and transmits it to the Activ App.

Functionally, Declar today is less a successor to e-dec Web than an additional, free entry point to the Passar transport process. That is sensible in principle – but it raises important questions.

• Why is it already being called a successor to e-dec Web today?
• Where exactly does it differ from the existing transport cockpit?
• What value does Declar offer companies that already have a B2B interface or commercial software?
• When will Declar actually become an application for goods declarations?
• How extensive will the planned import and export functions be from 2027?

Declar is a BAZG web application provided in the Swiss customs portal (ePortal). It is intended to be free to use. It requires registration in the ePortal as a BAZG business partner plus the business-partner role «Transport». Declar is still in a pilot phase and is initially available only to participating pilot companies; a general release will follow once the pilot concludes successfully.

The application targets in particular Swiss SMEs, domestic and foreign transport companies, businesses that carry goods across the Swiss border or have them carried, and companies without commercial clearance software.

• create a transport declaration
• edit an existing transport declaration
• reference one or more Passar goods declarations in the transport declaration
• create a Digital Transport Slip (DTS)
• transmit the transport declaration to the Activ App via remote loading or DTS scan
• have the goods declaration activated automatically at the border

The typical workflow therefore looks like this:

1. 1A goods declaration is created beforehand in Passar or via connected customs software.
2. 2The number of this goods declaration is entered into Declar.
3. 3The corresponding transport declaration is captured in Declar.
4. 4Declar generates the Digital Transport Slip (DTS).
5. 5The DTS is loaded onto the driver’s Activ App.
6. 6At the border, automated activation takes place.

In its current state, the application specifically cannot:

• create an import goods declaration
• create an export goods declaration
• capture tariff numbers and line items as a complete customs declaration
• calculate customs values and duties within a goods declaration
• transmit a complete customs declaration to Passar
• directly replace e-dec Web in its current scope

Instead, Declar requires the goods declaration to already exist in Passar. Other procedures are not yet fully supported either: according to BAZG, Declar currently works only with goods declarations from Passar. An extension to e-dec import declarations and paper-based procedures is only in preparation.

The official BAZG roadmap explicitly presents Declar as the «successor to e-dec Web». The planned build-out over time looks as follows:

• transport declaration from 2026
• import goods declaration expected from Q1 2027
• export goods declaration expected from Q3 2027
• last customs declaration in e-dec Web on 30 September 2027

The label «successor to e-dec Web» therefore refers not to today’s scope but to the planned end state. That is technically understandable but not unproblematic in communication: anyone reading today that Declar is the successor to e-dec Web might expect to be able to create goods declarations with it already.

The existing Passar processes already include a transport cockpit, i.e. a web-based way to create transport declarations. In addition, transport declarations can be created via commercial industry solutions and B2B interfaces. BAZG states that the processes via B2B and Declar work essentially equivalently.

However, the concrete difference from the existing transport cockpit is not sufficiently explained in the available documents. Possible explanations would be:

• Declar gradually replaces the existing transport cockpit.
• Declar is a technically renewed or simplified interface.
• Declar bundles transport and later goods declarations in one application.
• The transport cockpit remains for certain processes.
• Declar is primarily intended for companies without commercial software.

The published information does not yet clearly show which variant applies. For existing Passar users, the question remains legitimate whether Declar is a genuinely new function or, for now, just a new name and interface for a known process.

The value is less clear for companies that already use commercial customs software, create transport declarations via B2B, map the transport process fully in their TMS, pull driver and vehicle data from dispatch, and manage DTS and the Activ App system-side. If data such as plate, driver, crossing point, reference and goods-declaration numbers must be re-entered manually in Declar, there is no digitalisation gain – just an additional web mask.

The long-term value therefore depends heavily on whether Declar later enables templates, reuses data, efficiently bundles several goods declarations, offers practical role models, provides interfaces, and connects goods and transport declarations in one continuous workflow.

Customs software typically covers far more functions:

• capturing complete goods declarations
• master-data management and tariff classification
• plausibility checks and customs-value calculation
• management of authorisations and archiving
• document generation and response processing
• interfaces to ERP and TMS systems, billing and statistics

Today Declar covers only a small slice: creating and transmitting the transport declaration. Whether Declar will become a sufficient alternative for simple clearances from 2027 cannot yet be judged conclusively.

BAZG announces that from 2027 Declar should also enable the creation of goods declarations for import (from Q1 2027) and export (from Q3 2027). That could indeed make Declar the functional successor to e-dec Web. How far this scope reaches, however, remains open. The key questions are:

• Will only simple standard clearances be supported, and how many line items are possible?
• Can authorisations, quotas, preference proofs and origin details be processed?
• Can templates and master data be saved and earlier declarations reused?
• Can documents be uploaded and permanently assigned?
• Is there a complete overview of status and responses?
• Can customs agents manage declarations for multiple clients?
• Are import and export mapped equally, including exports, interfaces and archiving?

As long as these points are not clearly defined, classifying it as a full e-dec Web successor remains a target description – not a description of the current product.

1. 1The customs agent creates the import goods declaration in Passar.
2. 2The carrier receives the goods-declaration number.
3. 3In Declar the carrier captures plate, country of registration, direction, crossing point and the reference to the Passar goods declaration.
4. 4Declar creates the transport declaration and the DTS from this.
5. 5The DTS is sent to the driver via link and loaded into the Activ App.
6. 6At the border crossing, the referenced goods declaration is activated automatically.

Today Declar is not what many users would understand by a successor to e-dec Web. The application currently creates no customs declaration, only a transport declaration: it links an existing Passar goods declaration to a vehicle and transmits the information to the Activ App via DTS.

In doing so, Declar fulfils an important function in the new Passar process. Its current value lies mainly in giving companies without a B2B interface or commercial software free access to the transport declaration. The real test, however, follows in 2027.