A HARDER LOOK IS NEEDED INTO AIR CARGO SECURITY

During each day over 38 million major cargo shipments and 75 million courier shipments begin and end at our door steps. We take in air cargo as a matter of course and welcome the couriers and drivers as they deliver products to us. Little consideration is given to most of this cargo, specifically, where it has been, or who handled it, who shipped it, is this the same generic box that was tendered to the courier, or the fact of the relative safety of it contents. We just sign the form and take it in! It is not a perfect world.

Air cargo is neither safe nor secure while it is in transit. In most cases the contents are implicitly safe but there are no guaranties. Typically what people say is in the box is recorded as such and accepted. Cargo or small packages tendered to commercial airlines at counters do get screened but at what level as compared to baggage?

Speed is both the benefit and risk of air cargo! Air cargo, as compared to all conventional forms of transit, gets its greatest security boost from delivery speed, but anonymity of the true contents is the risk.

Air cargo rarely sits still. Cargo at rest becomes cargo at risk; we all know that, but air cargo gets far less scrutiny than we would like to insure its integrity both aboard commercial aircraft as well as freightliners. In-bond facilities are notoriously suspect for true long or short term containment or control. The known shipper program, as it relates to bulk air freight, has begun to identify consistent air cargo shippers and it has radically and positively contributed to air cargo security. For the most part the other ¾ of freight shipped by courier and in small parcels is still quite vulnerable.

This risk possibility should be a focused area of concern for government regulators and corporate security professionals. Everyone dealing with air freight or courier cargo needs to establish a transfer inspection protocol to enhance their security. The risks of an event by air cargo are enhanced by world events. They are not limited to bombs, but rather to the gambit of possible problems, which include bioterrorism, drug traffic piggybacked in your containers or courier packs and cargo pilferage.

Tendered bulk cargo at airside merely gets a cursory x-ray screening seeking specific items such as guns and flammables. The very speeds with which air pallets are assembled create the venue for less scrutiny. Courier cargo on the other hand gets almost no focused security effort for any threat. In most cases little effort is put into interrogating the shipper. If boxes are found to be suspect at a DC, the shipper is miles away from the freight or law enforcement. The known shipper program has no real affect on overnight domestic or foreign freight. Air cargo is typically left unattended before being boarded and after landing, and, unlike baggage, which tends to get matched to owners at one end of the flight; air cargo just sits at origin and destination awaiting a person to collect it. Without a pedigree or opportunity for scrutiny, we run tremendous risks in accepting general air shipments as well as courier packages. Many parcels from a certain area of the world, as a result of intelligence reports or meeting a criteria of a certain height and weight are opened for customs examination. When these parcels are eventually resealed, penetration for the purpose of theft or the introduction of contraband is even more simple. In-bond facilities in many countries are less than secure and they are the perfect formula for theft and disaster through the re-introduction of a device after screening and before loading. Needless to say generic courier packages fail the identification tests as label removal and repackaging cannot be detected. So much for generic packages. A simple case can be made for numeric package identity for courier based freight.

The air cargo industry is certainly in a quandary when it comes to balancing the cost effective nature of moving cargo vs. the cost of an appropriate level of security needed in our post 911 times.

It is incumbent upon the airlines as well as air cargo shippers to seek to embrace some basic threshold of scrutiny and security for unaccompanied shipments. Whether it is better security protocols or better screening, better and more qualified personnel accepting cargo or better indigenous containers, air cargo still poises a credible threat.

When you consider the United States as being just one of thousands of shippers, you can better understand the scope and magnitude of the problem globally. Do we curtail shipments from non-participating countries? Do we stop importing? Of course not. Will a higher level of security procedures adversely affect our economy, certainly? Without a plan will the lack of security for air cargo cause us harm in the future… you bet! Clearly the threat of terrorism via air cargo must become part of any shipper’s business strategy and receiving policy and we must all be just a bit more diligent in randomly receiving any unannounced air packages.

Commentary by Erik Hoffer, President Rigsecure