Terrorism: The Seal's The Deal
Trucks are prime candidates for the next attack, but we're still using sissy seals.
Doug Condra
President Publisher
The words of retired Army Colonel Ken Allard were chilling: "The terrorists will hit us again. But next time they're not coming by airplane; they've already done that.
"Next time they're coming by truck."
Allard, now an NBC News commentator, told the Truck Renting and Leasing Assn.'s 25th annual conference that while so much time, effort and money is being spent to secure air travel, much more needs to be done to secure trucking. And he added this little attention-getter:
"An 18-wheeler can carry a lot more high explosives than a B-52."
Considering that there are something like 4 million medium and heavy duty trucks operating in this country — and thousands more crossing our borders every day — we have a very scary situation. If terrorists can do the kind of damage they did on 9-11 by coordinating the hijacking of four airliners, what can they do with this pool of largely unsecured trucks?
So far, federal action to make trucking secure has consisted mostly of calling for tightening border checks, stepped-up container X-rays, and tighter driver screening procedures. The feds (and they're not alone in their thinking) especially worry about food and water contamination.
Virtually everything we eat travels on a truck at some point, which is why most shippers, receivers and carriers agree that cargo seals on trailers and truck bodies are a must. The shipper records the seal number when the truck is loaded, and the receiver checks the number when the load arrives. If it's not the same number, the load is rejected.
That system has been standard procedure in refrigerated food transport, and we think it should be standard in transporting any enclosed load.
But it has its own set of problems for carriers, as pointed out by Daniel Christner, vice president and chief operating officer of John Christner Trucking Inc. He says incidents of broken or wrongly numbered seals have increased dramatically. When that happens, the carrier gets stuck with the bill.
Behind it all is a simple flaw: Flimsy seals.
"An aluminum strap seal and/or numbered plastic seal provides no defense to tampering and is not an effective, or consistent means of ensuring load integrity," Christner says. "If we as carriers are going to be responsible for broken seals and the enormous financial consequences...there needs to be a more durable and tamper-proof type of seal, and a stricter policy mandated by the federal government."
There are much stronger seals available. Christner suggests one called a bolt-lock seal. It's steel, self-locking and can only be removed with a bolt cutter. You can take a look at one at www.americancasting.com.
No system is absolutely foolproof. But this isn't rocket science. We're using inferior security seals when better ones are available. If it's a cost issue, shippers and receivers should be happy to chip in to help assure deliveries — to say nothing of keeping bombs out of trucks.
What are we waiting for?
