Ensuring Cargo Security

By D'Anne Hotchkiss, Editor -- RFID News & Solutions, 6/22/2005

Increased security concerns for cargo containers are driving the need for RFID systems that identify and locate containers and discover tampering. Fewer than 5% of the approximately eight million containers entering U.S. seaports are inspected manually.

Security seals with radio signaling provide evidence of tampering while simultaneously tracking goods in transit globally. They provide “intelligence to inanimate objects,” such as containers, pallets and packages, says Dean Kothmann, chief development officer for BV Solutions Group, a Black & Veatch subsidiary. RFID applications can also reduce customs clearance time and identify and mitigate trade lane bottlenecks.

“It’s unrealistic to stop every type of intrusion. From the standpoint of expense it can’t be done,” says Allan Griebenow, president and chief executive officer of Axcess International, makers of active RFID systems.

His company’s off-the-shelf security solution uses an active RFID tag to identify the container while serving as an electronic door seal. It is already used on water tanker trucks for an undisclosed company. The Axcess system can simultaneously identify and monitor multiple sites enterprise-wide.

The RFID tag signals an electronic ‘I’m okay’ when it is clipped through the door lock. “From then on you know no one has opened the door of the container. When the container reaches the destination, you can determine if the seal has been opened or tampered with by either the absence of a signal or the presence of an alert,” Griebenow says.

Arriving containers pass over an activator in an open yard. For intact seals, information on the active tag is transmitted to the enterprise software, where identity, condition and contents can be displayed. Broken seals generate an electronic alert. If the tampering occurs while the container is within an enterprise system, the RFID tag triggers an alert procedure that activates remote and local digital video monitoring and recording. The video can be emailed to designated first responders.