Intermodal transportation is a system of moving goods using two or more carriers or modes in an intermodal container or vehicle during a single journey. This system of intermodal transport requires safety standards and security measures to be taken from the origin of the transportations to the final destination. Typically, due to insecurity and terrorist attacks facing globally the intermodal transport, steps have been taken on ports to monitor the system of transportation. Considering the increased terrorist attacks, security actions have been taken to ensure that the terrorists do not transport their weapons in the intermodal containers which have proven their capability of mass destruction (Bragdon 2011). Measures have also been taken to prevent threats from pirates and cybercriminals. Although these regulations have been made to ensure the security, on the other end, they have led to negative impacts on the business operations which includes increased costs and reduced operations quality. This study proves that the measures which have been taken on intermodal transportations to improve ports security have facilitated to negative impacts by increasing the operation cost as well as reducing the quality of the operations.
Typically, the security at the ports has claimed ship-operators costs on board vessels and shore side. The general rise in cost has been seen on documentation transaction from and to the involved parties which include the port authorities, upgraded communication system, and the shoreside personnel training. Besides, there has been increased labor, use of expensive and standard devices and security technology. For instance, the intermodal containers proceeding to the US port are required to have additional tools according to Helmick (2008). Those who do not meet the requirements are therefore not allowed to enter any United States port; thus the ship operators face a significant economic loss and thus reduce the quality of their operations by not meeting their customers’ requirements. Due to the raised security concerns, all the ships linked to the international trade are supposed to be equipped with the ship security alert system, ships identification number and AIS (Automatic Identification System) according to the Maritime Safety Committee 76. These requirements are mandatory for all vessels. Besides, the CSI (Container Security Initiative) has the essentials for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) as additional tracking and anti-tampering devices (Szyliowicz, (2004). The CSI still requires GPS with functional characteristics and the operators to have their notifications of arrival 96 hours, as well as 24 hours, advanced manifest rules. Eventually, all these requirements are set to ensure security on intermodal transportation especially in the port areas.
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The intermodal transportation companies have incurred significant cost and reduced operation quality as they try to fight cybercrimes. The intermodal containers have been faced with challenges of being hacked via the Global Positioning Systems (GPS) relying on the information database on volumes, destination and location of the containers or the carrier. Thus the intermodal transportation system has been targeted by the cybercriminals who have proven to have specialized IT knowledge and capability in re-routing or changing the boxes’ manifests. This threat has forced the intermodal transportation companies to take positive additional expensive steps to secure the supply chain from the cybercriminals. Typically, transportation companies have incurred a lot of costs as they hire and employ IT specialists to deal with hackers. Cybersecurity experts have been given the mandate to control the programs, detect and block all the hackers’ attempts of changing the counts and re-routing the cargo. Although the cost of goods’ loss can be astronomical, the port operators have incurred significant loss leading to minimal profit as they try to defend their operations from being interfered with by the hackers. This issue led the former President of America, Obama to sign the national strategy for Global Supply Chain Security according to (Szyliowicz, (2004). Since the goods cannot be transported unless there is clear evidence that there are no cybercrime threats, the general operations of the transportation has been altered with leading other jobs or steps to wait until the cyber security is assured. Thus the move to prevent the hackers has led to reduced operation quality and has led the companies to incur costs.
The transportation companies have been forced to take preventive measures by employing more security personnel and training them for proper response to the security threats thus leading to increased cost while decreasing the operation quality. The education and training have been provided expensively to the operators and the entire ships’ crew who are always supposed to be prepared to take a quick and effective response to any potential threat while in the sea or port areas. The STCW (Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping) which was prepared by the IMO in 1975 and got updated in 2010, prescribed minimum training standards, watchkeeping and certification for seafarers which a country is supposed to exceed or meet (Szyliowicz, (2004). The trained personnel in the intermodal transport system are therefore supposed to increase the information security and the potential threat which may occur. All this process took time to be finalized hence prolonging the transportation duration of the intermodal containers towards their destinations. By checking thoroughly the security of the transportation and the safe route to take, has led the transportation companies to slowly work since they need to be sure to avoid all the theft or piracy threats. Also, by taking educative action to the trainees is expensive and the company needs to set aside some amount of cash which could be used for another reason.
Since the security is given a priority in intermodal transportation, the transportation companies have developed their need to buy new costly security pieces of equipment which can assure a high-security percentage. The ports have been forced to create new expensive fencing system by constructing high walls and electric fences which can be reliable by keeping away the intruders. Notably, the construction of the barriers or buying the electric fences and fixing them around requires a specific capital. Also, the ports, as well as the ships and other intermodal containers’ carriers, are wired with the CCTV cameras to monitor the goods containers loaded and offloaded and mostly to control the movement of the people around the port or ship. These CCTV systems help the operators to identify any intruder who might be a threat. For instance, in the port areas, the CCTV is put in each direction to make sure all the regions are portrayed on the computer screens (Tarr, McGurk, & Jones, 2005). Typically, it is expensive to put CCTV devices around each area in the port, and it needs a lot of money to get them fixed in terms of buying the accessories and hiring the specialized person to do the work. Furthermore, the intermodal transportation companies are required to purchase screeners to avoid shipping any intermodal containers with terrorists’ weapons. The cost of buying the screening devices is relatively high and costs the company a lot in the name of maximizing the security at the port areas. The capital which used on buying monitoring devices could be used to standardize the general operations.
Due to the security threat in the intermodal transportations, they have increased the inspection with the use of embedded processors such as e-seals and e-sensors. These sensors are read by electronic readers at all points and are currently being used mostly in tracking fright shipments as they make their way to their destination. For instance, e-sensors have the capability of detecting any changes occurring to the intermodal container. According to Tarr, McGurk, and Jones (2005), the e-sensors document the terrorist attempts of interfering with the tanks and send the notification to the concerned department. Typically, this mode of security is expensive and costs the company so much leading to a minimal profit outcome. Through the sensors, transportation managers can track the location of each container and its code. Thus they can keep reliable information of which container is where thus being able to respond quickly to any potential threat arising during the transportation. Although all these measures are taken to enhance the security of the containers, they have negatively affected the operation of the entire transit. The sensors need time to be fixed as each container needs to have its sensor which takes a lot of time for each vessel to be wired. The time used in setting the intermodal containers affects the whole transportation process since the cargo could be on its way towards the destination. This delay can damage the reputation f the transportation company towards its customers.
The intermodal transportation companies are always alerted on taking fire preventive measures as their security to avoid any destruction which may occur. The cargoes especially the containers which contain flammable goods are kept under maximum security to prevent any fire possibility (Helmick, (2008). Thus in ports, there is an absolute requirement to have fire protection systems which have a high capability of tackling any fire threat facing the harbor. Through evaluation, a fire has been predicted to occur as a result of shifting the intermodal container within a lashed container or the fire can be experienced where this is a leaked flammable fluid. Besides, the intermodal transportation companies have been affected profoundly by the weather during transportation and storage of their cargoes. Some of the flammable goods are not expected to be exposed to direct sunlight (Bragdon, (2011). Thus, the preventive measures can be to put them under a shade or wooden covered containers where the sun heat cannot penetrate. On the other end, the transportation might be delayed the weather waiting to transport during nights or under favorable weather. These preventive measures lead to delayed delivery of the goods to the destinations.
In conclusion, the intermodal transportation system has been faced with various security threats including, theft, pirates, cybercrimes, and terrorism and fire accidents. The security measures are taken to determine the safety of the intermodal at the ports and on their transportation route has led to increased cost. New systems and expensive devices have been adopted to ensure the security of the containers whereby these measures have been costly to the company (Szyliowicz, (2004). Due to increased threats of terrorism and cybercriminals, the intermodal transportation companies have hired specialists who are supposed to respond quickly and effectively to any risk arising on the containers. Al those specialists are paid, in which the money could be used in other cases if those preventive measures were not taken. Furthermore, most of those preventive measures taken don’t work since not all the insecurity cases are faced. On the operation sector, most of the preventive measures have been seen to take a lot of time thus reducing the quality of work of the company towards its customers. This study has shown that the actions which are considered to improve the security at ports have led to adverse effects in which they have increased the cost of operation and decreased the quality of the service.
References
Bragdon, C. (2011). Transportation security . Butterworth-Heinemann.
Helmick, J. S. (2008). Port and maritime security: A research perspective. Journal of Transportation Security , 1 (1), 15-28.
Szyliowicz, J. S. (2004). International transportation security. Review of Policy Research , 21 (3), 351-368.
Tarr, R. W., McGurk, V., & Jones, C. (2005). Intermodal transportation safety and security issues: training against terrorism. Journal of Public Transportation , 8 (4), 6.
