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Q&A

What New Air Cargo Security Rules Mean for Business

New air cargo inspection rules go into effect in February. Are businesses ready to comply? Does the measure go far enough?

By Joan Goodchild, Senior Editor

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But the question is: Who should we do this? In terms of passengers and luggage the decision in 2001 was this should be shifted from being a private sector responsibility to a government responsibility. You can debate whether that was right course. Regardless, it is the course now and it is certainly not the only one. For cargo, TSA is looking to have the private sector screen as a means of protecting supply chains. I think that is a reasonable course of action, although it obviously has some vulnerabilities attached to it.

TSAs answer is CCSP: The Certified Cargo Shipping Program. Facilities, such as warehouses and airports, can voluntarily enroll to become certified shipping facilities. Those will be places where equipment can be positioned that has been certified by TSA.

It does present some challenges. Since you are talking about not just domestic, but international, too, it will take even longer than the time available to negotiate new standards with our major trading partners or international bodies that oversee aviation. That is the primary reason why TSA will probably fall short of the 100 percent guideline by next year.

You mentioned the vulnerabilities attached to allowing the private sector to do the screening. What are those?
The central risk is the insider threat. When you look at global supply chains, you literally have hundreds of thousands of people associated with those supply chains. So, how good is your background check? And the second question is: What is the capacity of the government to do effective oversight? Obviously we are experiencing in the broader economic realm challenges that at least in part were brought on by insufficient oversight. TSA currently devotes roughly 450 people to the oversight of air cargo supply chains. That's not a lot of people. That is one person per airport.

The alternative obviously is have security checkpoints at or near the airport, manned by government employees. We mentioned that in a 2007 report. Our estimate was 4000 additional screeners would be necessary. It can be done that way. Pilots have been done that show it can be done. But there is one caveat. The so-called built up cargo is very hard to inspect. So it was our judgment in the report that in the foreseeable future we would need a combination of government inspection and private sector certified shippers. And you are really arguing over the balance.

At all small airports today, if you walk up to a counter with a small package it is put through screening machine just as baggage is. Some of this will improve over time as you do more in-line baggage lanes at major airports. But one technical problem is if you have cookie sheet or pallet that has been built up at a facility before it reaches the airport, there is no technology today that can really look through that kind of built up dense cargo. So, for that, you would need to have some kind of certified shipper program with effective custody over that shipment between the dock and the airplane.