New Zealand Customs rolls out more cargo inspection equipment

New Zealand Customs rolls out more cargo inspection equipment

   New Zealand Customs has started the second phase of its cargo-inspection equipment rollout as part of its supply chain security strategy and its new Secure Export Partnerships program.

   The agency deployed two types of inspection equipment during the second phase.

   First, a fixed site inspection unit at the agency’s Auckland inspection facility will be used to inspect all outbound air cargo. “It provides for a faster and more efficient method of inspection, without having to actually open the containers,” the agency said in statement Thursday.

   New Zealand Customs also implemented a multipurpose screening unit, or backscatter van, to scan rows of containers, stacked two high, by driving past them.

   Another fixed site inspection unit will become operational in Christchurch in January. The final phase of the inspection equipment implementation will be finished in early 2005 with the arrival of three mobile container inspection units to be based in Auckland, Tauranga and Dunedin, the agency said.