Costs rise, profits shrink as 100pc air cargo screening looms

WHILE initial reports say all was well with 100 per cent screening of 100 per cent bellyhold cargo in passenger aircraft, obstacles loom ever larger as costs mount and speed and efficiency suffer.

But the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is adamant. "Recent global events have proven that there is a need to attain the 100 per cent goal sooner than originally suggested," said TSA officials after the recent Yemeni bomb plot.

TSA officials are referring to the old 2013 deadline for screening of all US-bound air cargo and how it must be advanced to December 31, 2011, reported World Trade100, a unit of BNP Media of Deerfield Illinois.

But Airforwarders Association chief Brandon Fried said costs were rising fast. "This is an unfunded mandate. Industry has invested hundreds of millions to buy equipment, to retrain personnel, to make changes to accommodate equipment. The other issue is technology. We still don't have a machine that will screen pallets and containers."

Mr Fried favoured a more nuanced multi-layered approach targeting high-risk cargo rather than screening all of it, especially after the Yemeni bomb plot was discovered.

Mr Fried said screening passenger baggage, which is relatively uniform in terms of weight ranges and dimensions, is much different from screening air cargo, which comes in all shapes, sizes, values and even handling requirements (temperature- and time-sensitive freight).

"So it could employ X-ray, explosive trace detection. It could be canine. It could be opening up the box individually to see what's inside. There are a lot of different methods," he said.

While lawmakers and industry debate this, forwarders and trucking firms have been dealing with their own problems as best they can with the tools they have.

Speaking to a meeting of the Los Angeles Air Cargo Association (LAACA), Tom Griley of Griley Air Freight, said one of the biggest problems was truckers' waiting times to pick up loads. There is a big difference if a trucker arrives before 5pm rather than after 5.

"After 5, nine of the airlines we monitored had wait times of four hours, while 11 airlines had wait times of three hours," Mr Griley said.

Another trucker said that excessive waits had cut profits and on occasion resulted in tickets by police for waiting in line too long.

Said a statement from The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA): "Much of the equipment certified for use is appropriate for the passenger screening, but ill-suited to air cargo where palletised or other consolidated shipments are the norm."
(Source:http://www.schednet.com)