News

ESC warns knee-jerk reactions from air cargo security regulators could be counter-productive

Friday, 05 November 2010

Speaking at this week’s Air Cargo Forum organised by TIACA the European Shippers’ Council has called for regulators not to rush into new regulation following the discovery of bombs being carried as air freight last week.

Any suggestion that new regulations are needed to secure air freight being carried in all-cargo aircraft has been roundly opposed by the European Shippers’ Council.

Andrew Traill, policy director of the European Shippers’ Council spoke out at the air freight industry event over the numerous misunderstandings that were being voiced by politicians and the media. He urged less haste in jumping to conclusions over shortcomings in air freight security that may have been exposed by the discovery of bombs on aircraft. He predicted swift reactions from some regulators, but he urged them to acknowledge that scanning every piece of cargo would be impractical, costly and ineffective. “The most effective way for the industry to detect and deter anyone intending to use air freight to carry out an attack is through intelligence using data and risk assessment. There are regulations now in place throughout Europe, that require information to be collected and sent through to the authorities about the freight, its origins and destination, the people handling it and its route to be sent in advance of its arrival.”

He continued “Not all scanning equipment can detect all suspect consignments. But this does not suggest air cargo security procedures are at fault in themselves. Enabling people in the chain to perform security checks and maintain the security through the transport chain, themselves authorized to do so based on the systems and practices they deploy, is not a weakness of security but a strength. Provided the system is properly policed, this multi-tiered approach to security in air freight is far more effective than scanning everything (especially when we know the technology is not perfect) and watching the air freight industry collapse under the weight of delays and excessive costs.”

It is important that industry stakeholders and governments work together and in this respect ESC is looking forward to continue working with those organisations representing the air cargo sector such as TIACA and IATA.  In this respect ESC would encourage the speeding up of the development of new technologies for screening. Dr Traill added in this regard, “But industry is not the sole defender of the realm, and neither should it be expected to shoulder all the costs with new and no-doubt expensive technology. Scanning is after all, but one layer of the total security net; the shippers and freight forwarders can and do provide additional layers through implementation of the existing security programmes and many of their own sometimes more thorough programmes. Now is the time to speed up the proper implementation of these existing security procedures; it is not the time to undermine them with new requirements that could bring to a halt that part of international trade which relies on air transportation, and on which our economies and we as consumers have grown to depend on for so much.”