Air Cargo Screening: A New Mandate
Additional risk to time- and temperature-sensitive freight?
By Kevin O'Donnell
Last year, the U.S. Congress passed a 9/11 Commission implementation law requiring the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to establish a system to screen 100% of air cargo. It applies to all cargo and all passenger carriers — domestic and foreign — involved in intrastate air transport. February 2009 is the interim benchmark for 50% of all air cargo from each airline to undergo inspection; by August 2010, every piece of cargo must be screened.
So, just when you think you have ironed out all the wrinkles in your transportation supply chain, along comes a government mandate that is expected to fundamentally and permanently alter the entire air freight industry, casting a pall over cold chain logistics.
The TSA branch of the U. S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is responsible for providing aviation security and ensuring the safety of the air-traveling public. They are also responsible for the oversight of air carrier compliance with cargo security regulations for passenger aircraft. To date, the TSA has relied heavily on the “Known Shipper Program” as one of the layers employed to secure the air cargo supply chain and ensure legitimate business moves on passenger aircraft. The program provides a systematic approach to assess risk and determine the legitimacy of shippers. Freight forwarders, or indirect air carriers (IAC) as they are called in industry parlance (because they consolidate shipments for dispatch to common carriers), are already regulated by TSA under a standard security program. They are held in compliance with the program’s requirements, must have approved security plans on file with the TSA, and must comply with a broad range of specific security requirements to qualify their customers as known shippers. Only shippers who have met these requirements can transport their goods on passenger aircraft.1
Roughly 12% of all U.S. air cargo moves in the belly hold of passenger planes. Such a screening program mandated by Congress would force the airlines to screen 15 million pounds, or between 600,000 and 700,000 individual pieces daily, covering more than 100 airports, 285 passenger and all-cargo air carriers with about 2,800 cargo facilities nationwide.2 Such a requirement to be shouldered by the airlines alone would cause huge delays and undermine the business case for air transport as a time-saving mode of transportation. Add to this the additional manpower, space considerations, and security and equipment costs that would be passed on to the shipper, and it could accelerate the ongoing shift from air to trucking, which began after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
But trucking is rarely an option in the lifecycle of time- and temperature-sensitive biopharmaceutical freight. And while 12% of all U.S. cargo is transported by passenger aircraft, essentially 100% of biopharma freight moves by such means at some point, or on multiple occasions, during its manufacture and distribution. That’s because drug-making is a huge and complex international manufacturing process.
Additional pressure has been put on the TSA to implement a comprehensive, consistent and reliable program to ensure proper procedures, compliance and oversight of air cargo screening thanks to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) raising concerns last year about the quality and thoroughness of the TSA’s current cargo inspections. It forced the Office of the Inspector General of the DHS to conduct an audit and issue a report on the challenges the TSA has met to comply with the federal requirements relating to the acceptance, handling and screening of cargo shipped on passenger aircraft. That report concluded that there are several deficiencies including:
- insufficient documentation to support airline compliance,
- inconsistent cargo inspection processes,
- inadequate self-auditing procedures, and
- ineffective monitoring and reporting metrics.
In general, without a comprehensive, consistent, and reliable program to provide proper coverage and oversight of air carrier cargo screening, TSA’s inspection process does not ensure that air carriers are screening cargo in compliance with federal regulations.2
The Inspector General’s report lists a series of recommendations to establish a system of oversight and improve the agency’s performance, measures with which the TSA has generally concurred.
The Proposed Solution
To assist industry in achieving the 100% screening mandate, TSA has created the Certified Cargo Screening Program (CCSP). It will create additional screening capacity at key points throughout the supply chain. “This will alleviate potential impacts if cargo screening remains at the air carrier,” said Tamika McCree, manager Air Cargo Stakeholder Relations DHS/TSA. The CCSP rolled out in nine major gateway cities. It is designed to screen cargo further upstream in the supply chain to ensure that the integrity of the cargo — from point of screening to point of loading on a passenger aircraft — is maintained. “Chain of custody procedures, a key aspect of the CCSP, will allow for indication of tampering to alert personnel who will perform secondary screening and risk assessment,” she added.
The CCSP has taken many of the requirements of the known shipper program and combined them with similar trusted trader programs for aviation, such as those in Ireland and the UK. Their export programs partner with industry to promote voluntary compliance with supply chain security guidelines. That way, the agency can focus on unknown and high-risk shippers and push security screening beyond their borders, closer to origin.
The CCSP pilot program has undergone massive changes since it was originally implemented. “You wouldn’t know it was the same program from when we started,” said Carl Trombatore, Transport Security Inspector, TSA. “The dialog we’ve established and feedback we’ve been getting from industry has been tremendous.” Mr. Trombatore’s comments came at a recent roundtable discussion with biotech and pharmaceutical manufacturers in East Lansing, MI, hosted by DB Schenker / BAX Global.
TSA has partnered with industry to create a more secure program that aligns with the practical execution of everyday security measures. Changes have been made to the program for security reasons to include feedback from industry. Mr. Trombatore is a member of one of several teams the TSA has assembled to take its show on the road around the country to explain to industry how the TSA plans to implement the CCSP, and to gather feedback. This open approach is a welcomed change in the industry, as previous management within the air cargo division had a reputation for enforcing regulation rather than embracing new ideas.1
Approved Cargo Screening Methods
According to the TSA’s Aircraft Operator’s Standard Security Program, there are six methods of cargo screening currently approved:
- Physical inspection. Also called “open and verify.” The screener searches through the contents of the shipment.
- X-ray equipment, including advanced MRI technology.
- Explosive Trace Detection (ETD).
- Detection canine teams or “cargo dogs.”
- Explosive detection systems.
- Decompression chambers.
How the Program Works
In addition to the TSA’s current sphere, which includes freight forwarder, airline and airport regulatory reach, the voluntary CCSP program will bring participating shippers, manufacturers, warehouses and logistics companies under the agency’s oversight.
Currently, airlines are the only ones that actually screen cargo and are responsible for screening a certain percentage of the pieces on their airway bills. Most airline screening to date is by physical inspection or “open and verify,” although some carriers are pursuing detection systems to enhance productivity.
The two most likely places to implement the program, and take the burden off the airlines directly, would be at the shipper and / or at the freight forwarder.
In either case, the TSA will incorporate potential safeguards to ensure the integrity of the shipment. This will include proper documentation, tamper-evident tape and shrinkwrap, asset tracking methods, truck security measures, and verification and logging the shipments upon acceptance by the IAC or airline. Certification will be granted after the successful completion of an on-site audit by a Transportation Security Inspector – Cargo (TSI-C) and will be awarded on a site-by-site basis, not company-wide.
Recertification will occur every three years. There will be a fee associated with certification, although the TSA has not resolved what the costs will be.
Shipper Screening
Ed Kelly, general manager, Air Cargo Division at the TSA, is the man responsible for meeting the government-mandated deadlines. Mr. Kelly also spoke at the DB Schenker / BAX Global roundtable in East Lansing, stating, “shippers, including logistics providers, can qualify for the program by establishing processes that guarantee the integrity of the shipment at the manufacturing site or warehouse. Certified companies will have to prove they can meet a minimum set of requirements.” These guidelines would include:
- Conducting background checks on packaging personnel
- Maintaining limited access controls and “sterile packaging zones” segregated from the rest of the facility.
- Double-checking individual packing boxes before they are sealed closed.
- Wrapping the freight with tamper-evident tape.
- Securing and password-protecting automated data systems.
- Keeping freight secured before surrendering it to a freight forwarder.
- Establishing container and trailer security measures.
When pressed with questions and push-back from attendees at the roundtable discussion, Mr. Kelly remarked, “Look, we know what the end of the story is here. Do you want a happy ending or a sad ending? The 100% air cargo screening mandate is going to happen, period. We all need to be prepared, and we’re working with various industries to help make this as practical as possible.”
Meeting the TSA guidelines is not a stretch for most biopharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors, since they already have rigorous security procedures in place. Shippers with Certified Cargo Screening Facilities (CCSF) actually face the lowest barriers into the CCSP because their physical inspection is considered the equivalent of an inspection using detection technology. It would behoove biopharma companies to sign up for the certification program because it gives them control over how their freight is moved through the system.
There is an additional benefit for shippers of time- and temperature-sensitive goods who frequently move their products in bulk containers. They can secure air containers and pallets without the freight forwarder or downstream airline having to break bulk or deconsolidate the shipment and inspect each piece by hand or run it through detection equipment. The IAC would pick up the properly sealed bulk shipment from a certified customer and transport it directly to the airline, thereby avoiding screening backlogs, and minimizing risk of improper storage, or missing a flight. But, the TSA cautions, there can be no stops in between and the freight cannot be mixed with that of uncertified customers or unsecured freight.
Forwarder Screening
Forwarders with secure facilities and well organized product throughput can also qualify to offer screening services to manufacturers and other shippers who are unable or unwilling to secure their own goods, using any one of the six approved cargo screening methods. But physical inspection methods will likely become problematic downstream in the shipping process because it is time consuming to open and re-pack boxes and there is increased liability for damaging shipper cargo. This would be a disaster for those in the biopharma industry, particularly when it comes to active and passive temperature-sensitive shipments.
The Devil is in the Details
Many shippers, freight forwarders, third party logistics providers, truckers, ground-handling companies, airlines, and airports know that they will have to make fundamental changes to their business practices to meet the new cargo security mandate, but are awaiting further details from the TSA. The amount of uncertainty in the industry is unsettling. Who, for example is going to pay for the required detection equipment? Is there a list of approved or recommended equipment? What about the airport haulers, of which there are thousands? They comprise a key linchpin in the chain-of-custody equation. How will they fit into the program?
And there is political backlash about the program as well. Members of Congress, who pushed the bill into law in the first place, are now expressing skepticism about the DHS’s plans for outsourcing what it believes to be the TSA’s responsibilities into the private sector. Many forwarders are waiting to acquire any new technology to see how the politics shake-out, especially with a new administration about to take office.1
One thing is for certain; the program is rife with potential for service inequities. At the onset, freight forwarders and shippers will have to rely on the airlines for screening as they are currently in the best position to do so. Until shippers and IAC’s become certified, and the latter acquiring the necessary equipment, look for longer lock-out times, increased shipping cost, and a back-log in freight. All of this will lead to time delays, missed flights, service failures, and dare I say, compromised temperature-sensitive healthcare shipments.
References
- E. Kulish, On the Clock, American Shipper, June 2008
- Skinner, R. L., Transportation Security Administration’s Oversight of Passenger Aircraft Cargo Security Faces Significant Challenges (Redacted), OIG-07-57, Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, July 2007.
