Across South America, Central America, and the Caribbean, new rail and ocean carrier links are being made within the region and internationally. Even domestically, trade routes are being developed and improved to increase cargo traffic to and from previously harder to access areas. The new trade routes are seen as boosters to the Latin American and Caribbean economies.
One such domestic project is a new rail line to connect Valparaiso and Santiago in Chile. This project would greatly decrease travel times between the two cities. Peru is also upgrading its rail lines to carry copper, gold and phosphate from mines in the interior to the Bavovar port. According to President Alan Garcia, the rail link will add nearly 2% to Peru’s annual GDP, create 500,000 jobs and carry a million tons of supplies to the mines.[1]
A new cargo shipping line between the Port of West Palm Beach and Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile has been established by BBC Chartering USA. This line will help increase cargo shipments to these countries, particularly for the construction and mining industries.[2] Maersk Line is opening new shipping lines between South America, Central America and the Carribean. Direct ports of call will be established linking the ports of
Buenos Aires (Argentina), Zarate (Argentina), Montevideo (Uruguay), Rio Grande (Brazil), Itajai (Brazil), Paranagua (Brazil), Santos (Brazil), Port of Spain (Trinidad and Tobago), Cartagena (Colombia), Manzanillo (Panama), Kingston (Jamaica), Puerto Cabello (Venezuela), Point Lisas (Trinidad and Tobago), Vitoria (Brazil), and Santos (Brazil).
Unfortunately, when new trade routes are established they can quickly become targets for cargo theft. Increased container traffic in a port increases the time containers end up in a holding pattern leaving them vulnerable to theft. In addition, cargoes transported by rail are also vulnerable to theft, especially when trains are stationary.
Also, cargo theft is characterized by FreightWatch International as elevated to extreme across the entire region. Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Paraguay are considered to have a high amount of cargo theft. Cargo theft is considered to be severe in Colombia, Guatemala, and Haiti while it is extreme in Brazil and Mexico.
While there are several companies now offering cargo security in the form cargo tracking systems most lack a physical security component. There is one exception to this dilemma in a solution provided by the TrakLok Corporation.Its GeoLok locking and tracking solution provides physical security preventing access to the container while tracking the shipment in real-time anywhere on the planet.
By employing TrakLok’s patented technology in a multi-layered security approach, cargoes can be better protected against theft than ever before. GeoLokTM is unlike any other cargo security technology in providing both physical security and real-time monitoring. Quite simply it is the best security solution on the market for containerized cargo.
In addition to providing better physical security than any other tracking solution on the market, data generated by the GeoLoKTM will be accessible through TrakLogTM. This information can be used in Transportation Management Systems to increase efficiency in shipping and supply chains. The GeoLokTM provides information on idle containers that can put into use, if a shipment is ahead or behind schedule, if a driver has deviated from course or if a shipment needs to be triaged and unloaded quickly. It also can give information on the condition of the shipment itself by communicating with sensors that detect temperature, humidity, light, even spoilage.
TrakLok Corporation, which owns the intellectual property for the GeoLokTM container locking solution, has integrated several wireless technologies to track containers globally, and has developed its own web accessible information-technology based global tracking system. The information provided by the GeoLokTM is accessible through TrakLogTM where users can obtain the location and condition information of a given container from any computer or web enabled device. TrakLogTM alleviates in a holistic fashion problems for companies managing containers in the supply chain including:
Asset visibility. Where is my leased or owned container now?
Condition monitoring. How is my container now?
Security/stop loss. Has my container been tampered with?
Asset utilization. When can I return my container to duty?
Predictive maintenance of assets. When is my next required maintenance?
The unique innovation of the TrakLok system will initiate a paradigm shift in how intermodal shipping containers are tracked, monitored, utilized and secured. For more information contact:
Eric Dobson, Ph.D. CEO and Director
2450 E.J. Chapman Drive
Knoxville, TN37996
(865) 332-1813
[1] Emery, Alex. “Peru plans to build northern mining railway by 2019.”Bloomberg. September 11, 2009.
[2] Nodar, Janet. “BBC Andino to begin Fla.-South America Service.” Journal of Commerce Online. September 23, 2009.
If an RFID Tag sends an
alert of tampering, who do you call? Who
responds? Who benefits?
Nine million shipping
containers enter the United States every year.
And, intermodal shipping container security means many things to many
people. Many use the term security, but mean
asset visibility. Visibility can
mean many things to many people as well, ranging from knowing the status and
condition of an asset in pseudo real-time down to visibility only at choke
points. Security, in the strict sense of
the word, includes visibility, but denotes a process of deterrence and prevention
of access. Typical tracking and alerting
systems offer little or no physical security as several studies have shown.1,
2
In the European Union, the
EUROWATCH program (https://secure.eurowatchcentral.com/)
has been implemented to address this issue.
EUROWATCH is a multi-country service that addresses evolving crime
against vehicles and freight. It
helps drivers and owners contact the appropriate responders when a
crime occurs. Coverage extends today to Western, Central, and Eastern
Europe, Turkey, South Africa, and parts of the Russian Federation. However, no such entity exists in Eastern Asia,
North and South America, or Australia.
For a coordinated response, the Department of Homeland Security must
consider a similar program domestically and work with foreign programs to
create the "interpol" for transportation security. In this case, the question becomes, how long
is long enough for the appropriate law enforcement to respond?
For tracking and
alerting systems that provide physical security, the decision must be made to
balance security and practicality on a product cost basis. The solution must allow enough time for first
responders to arrive, but can't be so expensive as to price the solution out of
the market. The solution must also
address the decision to camouflage or not to camouflage.
Security systems of all
types naturally draw attention to the asset, announcing it is of some great
value to someone. As long as containers
are made of steel, wireless technologies will require some external
manifestation of an antenna. Therefore,
the goal of a true container security solution must be first to deter. The solution must first make the asset less
attractive as a target by significantly raising the "ante" to access the
container. Failing deterrence, the goal
must be to prevent unauthorized access. However,
ultimately, anyone with the right tools and determination is going to gain access
to the container. Therefore, container
security products must focus on delaying access in order to allow sufficient
time for responders to arrive.
As a reward for this
process, the use of physical security systems for containers should have
several economic benefits in the reduction of loss and the optimization of
precious human resources. Estimates of
loss due to shrinkage range from $10 to $50 billion annually in the global
supply chain. Much of this loss becomes
insurance claims, which are in turn, passed back to the shipper as insurance
premiums, and then to the consumer as product costs. Some studies show that as much as 75% of the
cost of given good for sale is logistics costs.3
The time has come for
the term container security to be standardized.
Security should mean secure from unauthorized access. Visibility is valuable, but security is a
must and should provide economic incentives for implementation.
1
Scientific Applications International Corporation ("SAIC"). Cargo Handling
Cooperative Program, Agile Port and Terminal Systems Technologies: Container
Seal Technologies and Processes. Prepared under contract for the Maritime
Administration ("MARAD"). July 11, 2003.
2
Homeland Security Research Corporation, Maritime
Smart Containers Market Report 2004-2012 , 2004, p. 312.
3
IDTechEx, LTD, Active RFID 2066 – 2016 , 2005, p. 314.
Problems and successes as TWIC Implementation Begins
at Several US ports.
Torry Shealy
December 5, 2008
Several ports across the country
are now requiring Transportation Worker Identification Credentials (TWIC) for
workers who need to enter the facilities. The port regions where TWICs are
being checked are Boston, MA, Charleston, SC, Jacksonville, FL, Long Island Sound,
NY, Buffalo, NY, Duluth, MN, and Detroit, Lake Michigan, Sault Ste. Marie, MI,
and Savannah, GA. Workers nationwide will need to obtain TWICs by April 15,
2009. While there have been many problems with the TWIC program there have been
some successes and benefits as well.
One of the biggest problems
highlighted this past week is the loss of 3,000 applications being lost by the
contractor, Lockheed Martin by overwriting the application data.[i] In
a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Congressman Bernie
Thompson (D-MS) raised issue with the lost applications. Thompson, who is
Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, wrote that the
implementation of the TWIC program “has been an abysmal failure,” stating “that
DHS has ignored the guidance of stakeholder including members of Congress, port
operators, terminal owners, carriers, barge and tug boat owners, and labor organizations.”[ii]
In July of 2008, the National
Maritime Security Advisory Committee’s (NMSAC) TWIC Working Group published a
report with several questions and concerns over the TWIC program. One question
raised was how rail and utility workers would be checked as entering port
facilities. Another question was why TWICs are not accepted as a federal
identification card at airports.[iii]
There are also technical issues
that were brought up by the NMSAC report. Problems with fingerprinting seem to
be on
"Protecting the Goods: Increasing thefts show the need
for better shipping container security."
Torry Shealy
November, 2008
Recent times have seen a rise in the amount of thefts of or
from shipping containers. Many of these thefts are targeted, planned, and executed
with efficiency. Many of these thefts have been organized sophisticated crime
syndicates but sometimes the crimes are perpetrated by just a few enterprising
crooks. In the US,
the FBI estimates that $30 billion a year in goods are lost due to cargo theft.[1]
Just this month, around 300 pairs of jeans were stolen from
a shipping container at the VF Jeansware company parking lot in Greenville,
SC.[2] Sometimes
the thieves take the whole shipping container. In early October, three shipping
containers full of women's clothing were stolen from a Sayreville,
NJ warehouse.[3] And even
a whole trailer load of coffee creamer was stolen in West
City, Illinois, this month.[4]
The thieves are even going after drugs. There have been
major cargo thefts of pharmaceutical drugs, with $14 million in Lipitor and
Viagra stolen, as well as $25 million in Novartis heisted in 2005 alone.[5] It
makes one think of what other drugs have been targeted for theft.
This YouTube video From Tropical Shipping shows the ease in which criminals can infiltrate a shipping container.
This problem appears to be worldwide. From Somali pirates
targeting container ships to Mexican thieves busting into containers headed to
the US on rail
lines. This is even an important issue for the militaries that are fighting in Afghanistan
and Iraq. In
the last year, the British military has reported 16 cases of theft of military
equipment and supplies while in transit in Afghanistan.[6] And
in Britain
itself, truck hijackings have risen 50% in the past year, with $655 million in
lost goods.[7]
A new report by the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies,
compiling 3 years of data, found that electronics, food and clothing to be the
most stolen items. Locations where cargo theft occurred were truck stops and
rest areas but also modal yards, drop lots, as well as motel and restaurant
parking lots. Among the Chubb Group's recommendations was to take advantage of
security technology. The report stated that container tracking, vehicle
immobilization and advanced security seals are now available at lower cost.[8]
One of the problems up to date is there has been too much
reliance on inferior locking mechanisms and RFID tags and devices for tracking.
RFID is not the answer to finding a widespread tracking system and almost all
the locking mechanisms on the market are easily defeatable. The best solution
is to couple these two approaches to security. The best way to do this is to
combine a truly global tracking system with a very difficult to defeat locking
mechanism. The longer the device takes to defeat, the less inclined a thief is
to attempt to break into a container.
Do the C-TPAT approved container freight seals really provide security?
On , US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) mandated that all inbound containers headed for the United States must have an ISO/PAS 17712 standard container seal installed on the containers. This includes containers destined for foreign ports that are onboard any vessel making ports of call in the . But do these seals actually provide adequate security for shipping containers?
There are different types of seals that meet the ISO/PAS standard. One is the bolt seal. One problem with the bolt seal is that if only one is used on the right side, overlapping door, it can be defeated simply by bending the right door overlaps as shown in this YouTube video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6pXlBWUrpc
Unfortunately the bolt seal can also be easily defeated with no evidence of tampering using a cordless drill as shown in this YouTube video.
Another type of seal is the cable seal. Although a cable is wrapped around both doors, again it can be defeated quite easily without detection of tampering. These YouTube videos demonstrate this vulnerability as well.
There is a bigger problem to worry about than seals not being tamper evident. What is the perpetrator that infiltrates the container doesn’t care if there is evidence of tampering. The container could be compromised in-route to the meaning by the time it was evident the container had been tampered with, it may be too late. There has been concern with terrorists trying to smuggle a WMD into the , but they could do just as much damage if the WMD was detonated in port or on a ship at port. The consequences of a WMD attack on the ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach alone would have a severe economic impact on the entire country.
There have been modifications to some seals that include RFID packages on seals. But RFID is only good for locating a container and still don’t give any real security. What is needed is a seal that is not easily defeated but can also transmit information on the condition of the seal and the container. Basically a communication seal, one that can transmit an attempt to gain entry into a container, where ever it might be, even the middle of the ocean. Until this type of security is achieved, we will continue to be vulnerable by using the ISO/PAS 17712 security seals.
Learn more about defeating cargo seals from The Vulnerability Assessment Team at Argonne National Laboratory
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