WSC offers advice on smart boxes

February 19, 2004

19 February 2004

WSC offers advice on smart boxes

The following article is excerpted from “The Journal of Commerce” edition of 18 February 2004.

As the U.S. Customs and Border Protection develops standards for smart and secure containers, it should do so with the objective of building a more secure operating system that will work more efficiently, the World Shipping Council said in comments filed with the agency this week.

"Secure shipments are really the objective more than secure containers," the council said. "This also requires secure cargo loading and sealing, accurate and timely documentation of the necessary shipment data from the party with direct knowledge, as well as enhanced screening and inspection capabilities,"….

The council noted that despite its suggestions for improving the security of cargo containers, Customs should continue its use of … radiation detection. Customs should strive to improve that equipment, because "no matter how 'smart' or secure a container might be while it is in transit, the greater security threat remains that something bad may be loaded into the container in the first place and then properly secured with a seal," the council said.

Customs also needs to clarify whether the purpose of the initiative is to deploy technology that can be used for screening before vessels are loaded at foreign ports, or if the purpose is to develop technology to be used for security screening upon the port of entry.

Further, the government needs to distinguish between technology that can enhance container security and technology that can be a tool for enhancing supply-chain information management. "The purposes are not the same," the council said. "A failure to clearly distinguish between security objectives and commercial applications will create confusion and ambiguity, will impede progress on these issues and, in fact, may create security invulnerabilities."

Customs should insist that all technology proposals specifically and clearly address and identify how they and the information they generate are to be collected and used. Further, technology selected for cargo security should be non-proprietary and allow for competitive sourcing, and must be able to be deployed on 16 million containers, the council said.

The shipping council recommended against recycling devices from one shipment to another, citing security and financial concerns.

On the technical side, the council noted that the technology must be able to be deployed globally, noting, for example, that some radio frequency identification frequencies are not commercially available in some major trading nations. In addition, the technology must be functional in the environment in which it is deployed, and must not produce a high number of "false positives."

The council cited its white paper on electronic seals, which it sent to Customs in September. The council recommended an RFID tag and seal combination for international shipping containers consisting of three parts: a passive, read-only RFID container tag placed on the container by the owner providing "license plate" information of the container; a read-only, non-reusable electronic seal affixed to the container by the shipper for a particular shipment; and an active, read/write non-reusable RFID cargo shipment tag separate from the seal but also activated by the shipper prior to shipping.

The WSC also noted that it had not reached any conclusions on using sensors to enhance cargo container security.


Topic(s): 
Canadian Economy & Politics
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Canadian News Channel
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