Terminal giants offer to privatize scanning

Terminal giants offer to privatize scanning       Last January, a consortium of the largest terminal operators in the world formed the Terminal Operator Security Study Group to examine how they could assist in expanding the 100 percent scanning concept beyond the few ports involved in the Secure Freight Initiative, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office.
      The group ' APM Terminals, PSA International, Hutchison Port Holdings and DP World ' proposed that the United States reach out to other governments to determine whether they would allow terminal operators to conduct container scanning in their ports. The cargo handling companies offered to purchase, operate and maintain the radiation detection and non-intrusive imaging systems to scan U.S.-bound cargo entering the ports on trucks. They declined to process containers transferred between ships because no suitable process exists for inspections without a massive rerouting of containers. The terminal operators would also be responsible for resolving scanning equipment alarms with local authorities.
      The companies would recover their costs by charging a user fee.
      A consortium official told the GAO that the U.S. government would be responsible for funding the inspection activity at small ports without the volume to cover acquisition and operational costs. The United States would also be responsible for purchasing and operating equipment to conduct secondary examinations of containers that raised alarms during the first pass, as well as providing personnel to review scanned images of the containers. According to the consortium representative, this model would lessen the financial burden on the U.S. government and allow for scanning equipment to be deployed to their terminals within 18 months.
   CBP officials have dismissed the idea as inconsistent with their strategy of focusing scanning efforts on high-risk ports and because they don't trust private companies to adequately review scanning data given their incentive to quickly move shipping boxes through their facilities, the GAO said.