Manufacturers are joining a voluntary air cargo screening program at an increasing rate although more need to get involved with the program, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials say.
As of Friday May 14, TSA says that there are 686 certified locations within the Certified Cargo Screening Program (CCSP), with over 200 shippers–typically manufacturers–as part of the program.
Shipper certifications have been on the rise during the past 45 days and TSA is currently certifying shippers two-to-one over indirect air carriers (IACs), an agency official tells TR2. “This is the reverse of the first quarter of 2010.”
The breakdown of certified CCSP entities is 421 IACs, 207 shippers, and 58 independent cargo screening facilities (ICSFs). An IAC is a freight forwarder that typically consolidates freight for a shipper and then delivers it to an airline for loading.
There are less than three months to go before TSA will enforce a mandate that all cargo shipped on passenger planes departing from an airport in the U.S. be screened for explosives. The agency is warning businesses that if they want to participate in CCSP by the Aug. 1 enforcement deadline they need to apply by June 1.
Applying by June 1 gives TSA two months to prepare businesses to be certified cargo screeners under CCSP, just enough time to meet the Aug. 1 deadline when the 100 percent air cargo screening mandate goes into effect. It’s taking about 60 days to complete the certification process, the agency says in a recent webinar it hosted to encourage more manufacturers to get involved with CCSP.
TSA initiated the CCSP program about two years ago as a voluntary means to spread the responsibility for screening air cargo throughout the supply chain, including manufacturers, freight forwarders and even independent parties such as ICSFs. TSA realized that relying solely on air carriers, which are ultimately responsible for ensuring that the cargo they carry has been screened, would create bottlenecks at airports. Those logjams in turn would mean that some cargo wouldn’t make a scheduled flight, thus interrupting the flow of commerce.
A lot of carriers are already nearing their capacity to do the screening themselves, Don Basso, a principal cargo security analyst with TSA, says in the webinar. TSA employs its cargo security analysts to help participants navigate the CCSP process.
TSA has good participation from air carriers and freight forwarders in the CCSP program but needs more shippers involved, Basso says.
“Our concern is that not enough unique commodity and high volume shippers have a plan,” Basso says.
Unique commodities may include pharmaceuticals and toxic products that a shipper can’t afford to have someone else open if it alarms during the screening process or the integrity of the product might be jeopardized.
The costs for most shippers to become CCSP certified are usually low, that’s because manufacturers can often physically screen their packages before closing and sealing them rather than have to invest in screening technology, TSA says.
Bio-Technology firm Genentech, which ships its pharmaceuticals globally from U.S. airports, only had to invest $6,000 total across four manufacturing facilities in the country as part of its efforts to achieve CCSP certification, says Sean O’Neill, the logistics manager at Genentech who participated in the webinar. Most of that investment was for signage, he says.
O’Neill says that risk management studies show the company’s savings to be around $250,000 for joining CCSP. However, the reason for becoming certified is that air carriers were having to open the company’s containers that hadn’t been screened, which threatened product integrity, thus creating the incentive to join CCSP, he says. Genentech is part of Switzerland-based pharmaceutical giant Roche Group.
Come Aug. 1, if cargo bound for an air carrier hasn’t been screened, it won’t be loaded onto the plane, Basso says, reaffirming a commitment by the Department of Homeland Security that the mandate will be strictly enforced.
TSA has been hosting a series of town halls and webinars this year as part of an aggressive outreach effort to educate the trade community about their options ahead of the Aug. 1 deadline. As of May 1, air carriers were responsible for ensuring that at least 75 percent of the cargo they are carrying has been screened for explosives.
EMDs Added to Technology List
TSA recently updated its Air Cargo Screening Technology List (ACSTL), adding three electronic metal detection (EMDs) devices to its approved list and moving several transmission X-Ray devices from the approved to the qualified list.
The EMD devices are the Electromagnetic Inspection Scanner (EMIS) 6047 and EMIS 8075 made by CEIA USA, a division of Italy’s CEIA. The two CEIA systems are designed to inspect non-metallic cargo in order to automatically verify that no extraneous metallic components have been inserted into the goods. CEIA says the devices are designed to inspect perishable agricultural products, including fish, meat, flowers and organic materials, apparel, frozen goods, live animals and hazardous materials.
The other EMD on the approved list is Britain-based Lock Inspection Systems‘ Metalchek 30+ which is designed to automatically screen various food and agricultural products as well as pharmaceuticals, plastics, packaging, and others.
Approved technologies are those that have been conditionally approved for screening operations and are, or will be, in testing to become qualified for screening operations. Approved systems have three years to successfully pass TSA’s qualification test. If they don’t pass, they are removed from the approved list three years after being added to it.
An earlier version of the ACSTL said that technologies would remain on the qualified list until Oct. 2014 (TR2, March 17). The current ACSTL, which is version 4.0 and dated May 14, removes the expiration date for qualified technologies.
The transmission X-Ray machines that have been moved from the approved to the qualified list are L-3 Communications‘ [LLL] MVT-HR and VIS-HR and the Rapiscan MVXR 5000. Rapiscan is a division of OSI Systems [OSIS].
Version 4.0 of the ACSTL also removes several explosive trace detectors (ETDs) from the approved list and places them on a newly created waived technology section. These ETDs are the Morpho Detection Itemiser II and Vapor Trace II (particle mode only) devices and the Smiths Detection Ionscan 400B and Sabre 4000 (particle mode only) devices. Morpho Detection is part of Safran Group and Smiths Detection is part of Smiths Group.
According to TSA, the waived technology section is for systems that have “been granted an exception that aligns the technology with specific rules or parameters beyond those levied on approved or qualified technology. Regulated parties [i.e., CCSP members] should not purchase devices from this section; rather, they should reference the qualified or approved sections for their procurement needs.”
TSA’s Basso says that currently most CCSP participants that are screening cargo with technology are buying two to three pieces of equipment. That won’t be enough when it comes time for 100 percent screening, he adds. He also says that the EMDs offer a more affordable option for some CCSP members.