COAC points out cargo security overlaps

COAC points out cargo security overlaps       Correcting redundant requirements for personnel security and trusted shipper programs is the top priority for a panel of industry representatives examining overlapping air cargo security requirements within the Department of Homeland Security and elsewhere.
      The Commercial Operations Advisory Committee's subgroup on air cargo has nearly completed a matrix designed to show all competing security regulations and private sector standards facing the air cargo industry. The exercise is intended to help government officials streamline security initiatives and reduce the compliance burden for industry.
      COAC is a congressionally authorized body that meets on a quarterly basis, and as needed, to provide feedback to the departments of Homeland Security and Treasury on border management polices and rules.
      The matrix, which will be posted on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Web site, shows a significant amount of duplication exists between rules governing identity badges and background checks for workers in the air cargo supply chain, said Subcommittee Chairman Barbara Vatier, managing director of cargo services for the Air Transport Association, at the Nov. 4 COAC meeting.
      Complicating the problem is the fact that local airports also issue their own security badges, on top of federal requirements.
      The subcommittee plans to make recommendations in the near future on ways to consolidate the number and type of badges, certificates, Customs seals, background checks and other personnel controls required of freight forwarders, truckers and airline workers, she said. As a model, she points out state motor vehicle departments that have agreed on more uniform driver license standards.
      'We think this will also prepare for a national ID system,' such as the Transportation Worker Identification Credential that the Transportation Security Administration and Coast Guard are initially administering in the maritime sector, Vatier said.
      The subcommittee also wants DHS to work on minimizing redundancies between the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism and TSA's new Certified Cargo Screening Program, which was designed to help meet the mandate of 100 percent screening of cargo on passenger planes by next August.
      C-TPAT is a voluntary program under which companies involved in international trade implement approved internal security controls, with importers potentially gaining benefits such as fewer inspections of inbound cargo. TSA's rules place the onus on private airlines to screen cargo, and the CCSP was created as a way to relieve the burden on airlines and push more inspections up the pipeline to prevent backlogs at the airport. Shippers and logistics companies who volunteer for CCSP can self-inspect and seal cargo so that it doesn't have to be broken up and rechecked at the airport.
      The biggest difference between the two self-monitoring programs is that C-TPAT is a corporate-level program and CCSP requires security certification at the facility level.
      Vatier said the air cargo industry wants a system in which a participant in one program can apply for the other through an abbreviated process, and DHS recognize the common security controls that are in place and accept them as meeting the requirements of both programs.
      Initial and subsequent validations 'should be coordinated and take place simultaneously' so companies don't have to prepare for separate reviews, she added.
      Participation in one program would not automatically qualify a company for acceptance in the other program. CBP officials have indicated the past couple of years that they plan to explore the possibility of establishing an export component for the C-TPAT program, and Vatier said any such effort should be coordinated with TSA at the beginning rather than after the program already exists.
      Michael Ford, vice president of regulatory compliance and quality for BDP International, a Philadelphia freight forwarder, said a coordinated approach could encourage companies that are already in C-TPAT for imports to join CCSP for their exports.
      'By taking some of those security initiatives, that could help them get into CCSP a little bit easier because they may think (they) have to start from scratch. They may have a very good program already in place,' he said.
      TSA has already taken that step by promoting the fact C-TPAT certification can be a big help towards CCSP certification, but will continue to look for more areas of harmonization, said Kim Costner Moore, TSA's assistant general manager for cargo security.
      In addition to harmonizing programs between its own agencies, the air cargo community also wants DHS to align security standards with programs established in other countries because trying to comply with redundant requirements around the world is very costly to industry, she said.
      CBP has mutual recognition agreements in place with Canada, Jordan, New Zealand and Japan, but the mechanics of deciding when certified companies in those countries qualify for C-TPAT status are still being worked out and don't apply to air cargo.
      'Measures that are similar but not considered equal should count for something' and DHS should recognize that companies contribute to U.S. security to some degree through their participation in foreign air cargo security programs, Vatier said.
      She suggested DHS consider a middle ground between total mutual recognition of a parallel foreign program and automatically rejecting measures that aren't derived in the United States. Companies should get credit for those parts of their security programs that meet CBP and TSA standards, she said.

Searching for clues
      The International Air Transport Association said global air freight volume shrunk to its lowest point of the year in September, down 5.4 percent. IATA called it 'a marked improvement from the 20-percent-plus decline experienced in the first half of the year.'
      However, it cautioned that the relative improvement was due mostly to the fact that September 2008 volumes were low, coming as they did in the first month of the global economic meltdown.
      'The question is whether this dip is just statistical noise or a break in the recently established upward trend in travel and freight volumes,' IATA said.
      Freight load factors are now back to pre-recession levels.
      'However, capacity has been cut by reducing average hours flown by the aircraft fleet and that is an upward pressure on unit costs,' the organization said. 'The rise in freight demand combined with tight control of capacity has now pulled freight load factors back up to pre-recession levels. At 50.8 percent air freight load factors are the highest they have been for almost a year.'