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In the wake of
the Sept. 11 terror attack in the
United States
there were two aspects that stood out in particular as the focus
turned to seeking to prevent such horror ever happening again: the
terrorists’ planning took advantage of the relative openness of
U.S.
society, and their implementation involved off the shelf
commercial transport as both the weapon and the delivery system.
This has huge
implications for the complex transportation system that supports
the massive volume of goods flowing throughout the world as part
of global trade – and for those who use and operate that system.
Some 7.8 million loaded
containers enter
U.S.
seaports annually – an average
of more than 21,000 daily. Another 4.8 million containers pass
through the same terminals and gates carrying export cargo. A
significant number of containers move through ocean and inland
networks empty, being repositioned to pick up new freight
bookings.
An end-to-end
supply-chain move can involve as many as 25 parties and 35 to 40
shipping documents. On a single inbound sailing to the United
States, a typical modern container ship sailing 80 per cent full
might today be carrying 3,000 containers of various sizes and thus
generate, transmit and manage more than 100,000 documents.
This paper is offered
from the perspective of two hands-on participants in global
supply-chain management. APL and APL Logistics operate across more
than 87 countries providing services that include
freight-management, end-to-end electronic monitoring,
consolidation or deconsolidation, Singapore-flag, U.S.-flag and
foreign-flag container-shipping, and intermodal connections.
Key conclusions include:
•Close co-operation
between and within the public and private sectors is vital to
tightening security without compromising supply-chain efficiency
and the flow of global trade.
Cooperation is
highlighted in two U.S. Customs Service programs – the Container
Security Initiative (CSI) and the Customs-Trade Partnership
Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) – that provide a regulatory blueprint
for future global supply...
...Continued
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