Planned outage of Poland’s ‘Single Window’ customs platform threatens overnight clearance on 16 April

Poland’s National Revenue Administration (KAS) has warned importers, logistics operators and customs brokers that the PKWD ‘Single Window’ IT system will be offline from 22:00 on 15 April until 06:00 on 16 April 2026 for critical maintenance. The notice—published yesterday afternoon and updated at 08:29 this morning—means traders must file pre-arrival declarations or risk trucks and air-cargo consignments being held at the border until the system comes back online. PKWD consolidates veterinary, sanitary and phytosanitary inspections across 11 border crossings, including the busy Koroszczyn-Kukuryki freight corridor to Belarus and the S19 route into Slovakia. Because the platform interfaces with the EU’s Import Control System 2 (ICS2), any downtime automatically blocks the release of high-risk consignments flagged for documentary checks, causing knock-on delays at inland logistics parks. Large forwarders such as DHL Supply Chain and PKP Cargo say they have rerouted time-critical shipments of automotive parts through Germany to avoid the outage. Smaller hauliers, however, may face detention fees if drivers arrive before customs clearance can be completed. KAS recommends using the ‘green lane’ fast-track only for consignments that obtained a risk-rating decision before 21:00 on 15 April. For corporate mobility teams the outage has a human dimension: technicians and expat staff moving personal effects—everything from IT equipment to household pets—will see the same delays because household goods are processed in PKWD’s ‘other goods’ module. Mobility vendors are advising travellers landing at Warsaw Chopin on late-night flights to carry laptops in hand luggage, as unaccompanied cargo may not clear until Friday morning. KAS says the maintenance window will deploy security patches linked to the EU Customs Single Window blueprint and that no further outages are expected before the July launch of Phase 2. Businesses should, however, monitor the PUESC portal for late-breaking updates and adjust just-in-time inventories accordingly.