C.H. Robinson opens up new Certified Cargo Screening Facility in Southern California

Global logistics services provider and freight forwarder C.H. Robinson said this week it has opened up a certified cargo screening facility (CCSF) for air cargo in Carson, California, which it set will screen air cargo directly, instead of relying on third party facilities.

This is the company’s second CCSF. It opened its first one in Chicago in April 2012.

Other benefits of the CCSF cited by Robinson include to better support air service in the Los Angeles area, reduce delays for customers, and improve tracking capabilities. It is comprised of 20,000 square-feet of warehouse space, state-of-the-art screening machines, and a dedicated air freight team that screens air freight moving throughout the facility, according to C.H. Robinson, and it added that the facility’s IT backbone is based on Robinson’s proprietary global technology platform, called Navishpere, which allows shippers to track freight before, after, and during the CCSF, something Robinson explained can be missing during the screening process.

C.H. Robinson director of global air services, Matt Castle said this new facility stems from the company’s continued focus and development of its air cargo products and services as it continues to gain scale and maturity.

“This was really kind of a next step for us, with the Los Angeles market basically second in line behind Chicago for our [air cargo] volume and tonnage,” he said. “The whole Southern California region is really important to Robinson in general, when we look at our entire portfolio of services. This felt like a really good fit. Some of this was driven by wanting to add customer flexibility as well.”

The new CCSF is part of a larger 250,000 square-foot warehouse footprint Robinson has had since 2010, which is a bonded facility that also offers ocean freight, cross-docking, transloading, and domestic and asset-based and facility-based consolidation program out of the facility.

Castle said that opening this CCSF was always a part of Robinson’s long-term strategy to bring some of these ancillary services into a warehouse space.

When asked what the direct benefits of the CCSF are for its air cargo shipper customers, Castle said that the element of having that freight under Robinson’s control and being able to prioritize it at the company’s discretion is key. And when looking at cargo handling from an airline’s perspective he said there are cutoffs and different channels in which freight is received and screened versus being unscreened that increases time commitments, which in turn allows Robinson to provide added flexibility to its customers and controlling visibility, as well as handling the inland pickup pieces further upstream that allows Robinson to manage things like exceptions for special needs that often come up for customers.

Looking ahead, Robinson said it will continue to evaluate other possible locations to open up new CCSF facilities, while it currently maintains strong relationships with third parties handling air screening services for its customers in other U.S. locales.

“When you look across the industry and see a lot of the new equipment coming online, it is really being driven by passenger air travel demand a bit, with a lot of lower deck transportation capacity coming online,” said Castle. “It comes back to the flexibility element. In Los Angeles today, there is not a tremendous amount of freighter capacity. Passenger capacity, though, continues to expand as freighter capacity continues to decline. This has led to the need for air screening being more and more relevant than it maybe has been in the past.”

The need for air cargo CCSF facilities is based on a 2010 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) mandate for air cargo to be screened to the piece level prior to being loaded on passenger airplanes, a take typically handled by airlines or third party facilities. C.H. Robinson said that this degree of scrutiny often results in delays, when resources and personnel have additional responsibilities.

The law was part of H.R. 1, Implementing the 9/11 Commission Recommendations Act of 2007, which required the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish a system to enable to airline industry to establish a system to screen 100 percent of cargo transported on passenger aircraft commensurate with the level of security used for checked baggage.

This requires all air cargo to be screened at the piece level prior to transport on a passenger aircraft for flights originating in the United States, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration. Included in this endeavor is TSA’s Certified Cargo Screening Program, which enables Indirect Air Carriers (IAC’s), shippers, and Independent Cargo Screening Facilities (ICSF’s) to screen cargo for flights originating in the U.S. According to TSA, most shippers involved in CCSP have readily incorporated physical search into their packing/shipping operation at minimal cost without needing to invest in screening equipment.