Commentary by Erik Hoffer, President CGM Security Solutions Inc.

During each day over 38 million major cargo shipments and 75 million courier shipments begin and end at our door steps. We take in cargo as a matter of course and welcome the couriers and drivers as they deliver products to us. Little consideration is given to much of this cargo as to where it has been, or who handled it, who shipped it or the fact of its relative safety or security, we just sign the form and take it in!

Cargo is neither safe nor secure in transit but rather at risk during much of the transit cycle. Air cargo, as compared to all conventional forms of transit, gets its greatest security boost from delivery speed, anonymity and parcel size relative to other packages in the same igloo. Air cargo rarely sits still. Cargo at rest becomes cargo at risk. Air cargo on the other hand gets far less scrutiny than we would like and it is therefore an area of concern for security professionals. Tendered cargo at airside merely gets a cursory x-ray screening. Little effort is put into interrogating the shipper, as the shipper is unknown and miles away. Air cargo is unattended unlike baggage, which tends to get matched to owners at one end of the flight or the other. Without a pedigree nor opportunity for scrutiny we run tremendous risks in accepting general air shipments as well as courier packages. Many parcels of a certain height and weight are opened for customs examination but then most are not properly reclosed or resecured before boarding the aircraft. In-bond facilities in many countries are less than secure and they are the perfect formula for disaster. The air cargo industry is certainly in a quandary when it comes to balancing the cost effective nature of moving cargo Vs the cost of an appropriate level of security needed in our post 911 times. It is incumbent upon the airlines as well as air cargo shippers to seek to embrace some basic threshold of scrutiny and security for unaccompanied shipment. Whether it is better security protocols or better screening, better and more qualified personnel or better containers, air cargo still poises a credible threat. In the United States the FAA has attempted to institute the preferred shipper concept which seems to begin the process. When you consider the US as being one of one thousand shippers, you can better understand the scope and magnitude of the problem globally. Do we curtail shipments from non-participating countries? Do we stop importing? Clearly the threat of terrorism via air cargo must become part of any shippers receiving policy and we must all be just a bit more careful in randomly receiving unannounced packages.