Cargo security: Government agencies may not be only the answer, says expert

Patrick Burnson, Executive Editor -- Logistics Management, 3/27/2008

SAN FRANCISCO—With U.S. federal security agencies ramping up inspection and enforcement efforts at airports and seaports, one might suspect that shippers are becoming less vulnerable to theft and terrorism. They do so at their peril, said a leading security specialist.

“With more scrutiny placed on air cargo and ocean shipments, criminals are now focusing on other areas of the supply chain,” said Bob Frucci, director of national development for CGM Applied Security Technologies Inc. in Farmingdale, N.J. “Motor carriers on the open road and among the chief targets these days,” he added.

According to Frucci, attacks have migrated down from Canada and pose a growing risk to trucks and inland warehousing.

“The primary groups of criminals comprise the worst elements of gangs and mob members,” he said. “With the occasional terrorist thrown in.”

CGM, a manufacturer of “threat-based” security products like tape and locks, provide individual shippers with another layer of protection. But Frucci maintained that even his company’s offerings are not enough without a layered approach to enforcement.

“Government lawmakers are just beginning to understand how much coordination is required to provide this kind of solution,” he said. “But a lot of it is based on overreaction to events as they occur.”

The National Industrial Transportation League, for example, recently told the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that while it supports the security objectives set forth in the agency’s notice of proposed rulemaking in the advance of trade data program known as “10+2”, many questions and concerns still remain how the program may work in practice.

Air cargo shippers, meanwhile, are concerned about laws requiring 100 percent inspection. Frucci, said such apprehension is justified.

“Law enforcement may have all these safeguards in place, but do not have their fingers on the pulse of illegal activity,” he said. “It takes constant vigilance, and the flexibility to respond to sudden changes in strategy. Criminals are highly adaptive individuals.”