Transportation Security After 9/11: Cargo and Passenger Protection

Introduction

The growth of international trade and the globalization of production have placed enormous pressures on the international transportation system. Globalization has allowed American-owned companies to transfer their manufacturing bases to foreign countries, providing lower production costs and higher output rates. Higher production rates require an efficient transportation network that can safely utilize a variety of modes to deliver finished products to global markets. The increased demand for products has simultaneously increased demand for secure transportation networks in the post-9/11 world, where transportation infrastructure has become a target of choice for terrorists.

The transportation network within the United States and internationally facilitates intramodal and intermodal transfer and delivery of services, goods, passengers, and materials as part of the national and international transportation network. The global supply chain and freight transportation networks are supported mainly by maritime transportation, which has become highly efficient in terms of costs, capacity, and reliability. However, the rapid growth of maritime containerized shipping has placed intense pressures on inland freight transportation systems, particularly rail (Rodrigue, 2008).

This network comprises government-run, quasi-government-run, privately owned, and independently owned transportation conveyors. The national transportation networks are connected to the international transportation network because of the global economy, which requires the global transportation network to be connected to local and state transportation networks. This ensures the efficient and safe delivery of passengers, services, goods, and cargo to their final destinations. These multi-modal national and international transportation networks use pipelines, water, air, cables, and roads to deliver finished products, raw materials, and services to end users.

The variety of transportation modes within the global supply network creates a requirement for a complex security apparatus that begins with the manufacturer and ends when the finished product is delivered to the end user. With globalization of supply chains, international trade has become pivotal to every country in the world today, including large, small, developing, underdeveloped, and developed nations. The expansion of international trade has created wealth of opportunity for many businesses able to extend operations worldwide. However, this expansion will create security challenges for Homeland Security personnel within the United States at local, state, and national levels, due to increased movement of passengers and cargo from lesser-developed countries with less rigorous security procedures. It will require changes to security procedures and apparatus of the transportation network to occur simultaneously.

Cargo Security Programs

The events of 9/11/01 caused a fundamental change in cargo security measures at local, state, national, and international levels. Prior to 9/11/01, customs officials worldwide were responsible primarily for clearing imported goods after such goods had arrived at their borders. This involved reviewing entry documentation that accompanied goods at the time of importation and, if necessary, conducting physical inspections.

Cargo security programs developed post-9/11/01 require pre-shipment examination of exports by authorities in the country of origin (White House, 2010). These programs require exporters to provide customs documentation in advance of shipment to the importing country. Such advanced documentation assists customs authorities in employing sophisticated, multilayered risk assessment techniques to determine whether to admit goods at the border or hold them for further inspection (White House, 2010).

Air Cargo Security

Air transportation is the fastest mode within the global transportation system. This mode transports both cargo and passengers, and security for this mode is very complex due to its national and international nature. The air cargo system is a complex, multi-faceted network that transports large amounts of mail, freight, and packages aboard both passenger and cargo aircraft. This system is vulnerable to several security threats, including illegal shipments of hazardous materials, criminal activities such as smuggling and theft, plots to place explosives aboard aircraft, and potential hijackings and sabotage by persons with access to aircraft.

Since 9/11/01, there has been development of procedure and technology initiatives to enhance the security of the air cargo system while simultaneously attempting to deter terrorist and criminal threats. Some of the procedures enacted include industry-wide consolidation of the "known shipper" program; increased cargo inspections; increased physical security of air cargo facilities; increased oversight of air cargo operations; security training for cargo workers; and stricter controls over access to cargo aircraft and air cargo operations areas (White House, 2010).

Technology developed to date includes tamper-resistant and tamper-evident packaging and containers; explosive detection systems (EDS) and other cargo screening technologies such as blast-resistant cargo containers and aircraft hardening; and biometric systems for worker identification and access control. These security measures must be implemented to mitigate risks associated with placing cargo on passenger and cargo planes and the high number of people with access to aircraft during cargo operations (White House, 2010).

The enormous volumes of cargo across all transportation modes and the very high costs in both time delays and equipment that would be required if all cargo had to be physically screened illustrate the acceptance of risk-based approaches to cargo security as a practical reality (Poole, 2008).

Cargo Security Versus Passenger Security

Since 9/11/01, there have been calls for 100% inspection of all cargo entering the United States from other countries (Duella, 2007). However, there is no current requirement by the Transportation Security Administration for 100% inspection of all cargo, due to the fact that it is very expensive, time-consuming, and impractical (Duella, 2007). Critics of the TSA state that its decision not to screen 100% of all cargo entering the United States jeopardizes security and argue that the TSA should employ the same approach it uses to screen 100% of passengers on airplanes. According to critics, anything less makes the air cargo system less secure than the passenger system.

However, according to Dullea (2007), the perception that cargo carriers have weaker security standards than passenger carriers simply because security standards are different is erroneous (Duella, 2007). One of the main differences between passenger and cargo carriers is that cargo and payload for passenger airlines is more uniform than the payload found on cargo airlines. The payload on a passenger aircraft consists of people and their personal baggage, allowing airlines whose primary payload is passengers to screen an entire flight of bags and passengers in minimal time. This is because the human body and passenger luggage are relatively uniform in both size and composition for the traveling public.

The TSA has determined that instead of applying a one-size-fits-all program, it should apply a risk management program recommended by other governmental organizations in order to expedite the movement of goods—some of which are perishable—within the global supply chain. TSA determined that it was not technologically feasible to physically inspect 100% of air cargo and that they needed to develop a process to screen air cargo shipments and separate pre-screened cargo and cargo from known shippers from cargo that were not screened and whose consignor was unknown. The purpose of these screening processes is to ensure that all cargo posing elevated risk would be set aside for inspection. This air cargo security plan was adopted from the same security plan and processes that have been utilized for several decades in the maritime cargo industry (Peterson, Bittel, Forgie, Lee & Nestor, 2006).

In addition, TSA has implemented a process to place additional scrutiny on cargo from unknown shippers and countries where there is not a prescreening or preclearance protocol in place for cargo being shipped to the United States. The most practical and intelligent approach to transportation is to assign security resources to passengers and baggage in proportion to the estimated risk (Poole, 2008).

Conclusion

The characterization of the transportation network does not affect safe travel. Inefficient and inadequate transportation security measures affect safe travel and global supply chains. However, because of treaties signed by countries involved in global transportation and supply chain operations, transportation carriers that are indirect and direct—both nationally and internationally—must operate at a minimum standard transportation security posture in order to be in compliance with United States Federal Law passed by Congress. These minimum security standards were developed to act as a viable deterrent to possible terrorist attacks.