Dutch Customs Goes Digital-Only as of May 16th
If you ship goods in or out of the Netherlands, mark 16 May 2026 in your calendar. Dutch Customs (Douane Nederland) is switching to a fully digital document submission process via its declaration system DMS (Douane Management Systeem). From that date, documents submitted following a customs inspection must be delivered through a direct system-to-system connection — not by email.
What Exactly Is Changing?
Until now, shippers and customs agents could submit supporting documents to Dutch Customs by email after a control check was triggered. That workaround ends on 16 May.
Going forward, documents — including invoices, (preferential) certificates of origin, and origin attestations — must be submitted digitally via a direct integration between your business software and the DMS declaration system.
The documents are automatically linked to the correct inspection and routed to the right customs handling team. Storage complies with the Dutch Archives Act (Archiefwet).
This change is part of the Dutch Customs Digitaal Dossier programme, designed to handle the growing volume of customs declarations and align with future obligations under the Union Customs Code (UWC/DWU).
Supported file formats include: PDF, JPEG, DOC, DOCX, and XLS.
Note: This applies only to documents submitted in response to a customs control check. It does not apply to CERTEX submissions.
Why This Matters for Your Logistics Operation
For companies managing regular cross-border shipments through the Netherlands — whether via Rotterdam, Schiphol, or other entry/exit points — this is a process change that touches your customs software, your documentation workflows, and potentially your integration stack.
If your customs agent or freight forwarder handles declarations on your behalf, you need to confirm they are ready. If your ERP or TMS generates or manages customs documents, your software provider needs to have the DMS integration in place before the deadline.
Dutch Customs has informed all software vendors of the new system integration requirements. Pre-production support is available through the developer community at nh.douane.nl.
Three Things to Do Before 16 May
1. Check with your customs software provider
Ask directly: is your software integrated with DMS for document submission? When will it be live? If they don’t have a clear answer, escalate — there are fewer than seven weeks left.
2. Review your document submission process
Map out which documents your team or customs agent currently sends by email to Dutch Customs. These are the exact flows that need to move into the DMS integration.
3. Connect your TMS to the chain
If your transport management system generates or stores shipping documents such as invoices or origin certificates, make sure it can hand these off to your customs software seamlessly. Manual handoffs create delays and errors — exactly what a tighter deadline will expose.
How Viya Supports Your Compliance Readiness
Viya is built for precisely this kind of change. As a cloud-native TMS, Viya maintains structured, digital records of your shipment documentation and integrates with customs and carrier systems — giving you the data foundation you need to meet requirements like the DMS transition.
When customs compliance becomes a system integration question, having a modern TMS at the centre of your logistics operation is not optional. It is the foundation.
→ Learn more about Viya’s documentation and integration capabilities
Source: Douane Nederland — Lever bescheiden aan via DMS vanaf 16 mei 2026 (24 March 2026)
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