ITN Express — Direct AES Export Filing for Vehicles

Exporting a vehicle from the United States legally requires filing Electronic Export Information with CBP’s Automated Export System and receiving an Internal Transaction Number (ITN) before the vehicle reaches the border. For an individual exporting one car, the traditional path is to pay a freight forwarder or broker to file on their behalf. ITN Express turns that into a self-service product.

The Challenge

The AES filing requirement is the same whether you’re a logistics company moving hundreds of shipments or a single person driving their truck to Canada. But the tooling has always been built for the former. An individual exporter faces a choice between a government system built for commercial filers and a broker who charges to press the buttons for them.

The rules aren’t trivial, either. Used self-propelled vehicles carry a 72-hour pre-export requirement, VINs must be valid, a Power of Attorney is required before anyone files on the exporter’s behalf, and the whole record has to be retained for five years. Get any of it wrong and the filing is rejected—or worse, the vehicle is turned away at the border.

Our Approach

ITN Express files directly to AES via AESTIR EDI—the same electronic channel commercial filers use—wrapped in a three-step wizard that an individual can complete without knowing what “EEI” stands for. The exporter enters their vehicles, the export and consignee details, and reviews; the product handles the EDI.

Compliance is enforced in the flow rather than left to the user. VINs are validated with the SAE J853 MOD-11 check digit. The 72-hour rule is checked before payment. Power of Attorney is signed digitally and gated ahead of filing per 15 CFR §30.3(f). Sensitive data—VINs, tax IDs, addresses, signatures—is encrypted at rest, and every state transition is audit-logged for the five-year retention requirement.

The Solution

• Direct AES filing — AESTIR-compliant EEI submitted to CBP, with the ITN returned to the exporter.
• Multi-vehicle shipments — several vehicles on one shipment, sharing a single ITN.
• Amendments and cancellations — filing actions per 15 CFR §30.9, handled in-app.
• Digital Power of Attorney — typed or drawn signature, generated PDF, full audit trail.
• Canadian-side guidance — a landed-cost duty/tax estimate and a step-by-step border, RIV, and provincial registration checklist for after the ITN is issued.
• Self-service checkout — a flat per-shipment fee via Stripe, in place of a broker’s markup.

Status

The product is built, filing directly to CBP with AES certification in progress. The US export filing is the live core; the Canadian import side is an estimate and guidance layer, deliberately scoped separately from the commercial import-declaration work.

The Result

A filing that used to require a broker or forwarder becomes a few minutes in a wizard: valid EEI, a returned ITN, and a compliant paper trail—put directly in the hands of the person actually exporting the vehicle.