Security Monitoring of Cargo in Ports

This paper describes new ways to manage the security of cargo in ports. The work builds on the work performed in the EU co-sponsored SUPPORT project. The paper gives an overview of the different methods to track cargo through the port and the supply chain: cargo can be monitored at different levels: at vehicle level, at container level, at transport unit level or at pallet level. Monitoring at vehicle level is the most widely used, but linking cargo data and vehicle is difficult in multimodal supply chains, where vehicles and transport modes change. Especially nodes where transport modes change are challenging for cargo monitoring. Ports are major nodes in the international supply chain network and their influence to the overall supply chain security is noteworthy. In supply chains the operators are mainly interested in their own part of the chain. Also ports are usually interested in their own defined part of the supply chain. The challenge for monitoring solutions is to produce valuable results in the limited supply chain part. Through modelling of the different processes and the movement of cargo in the port, weak spots can be identified. This paper discusses ways for implementing the monitoring of cargo with respect to different handling stages and technologies at container and cargo ports and facilities. The main purpose of the work described is to provide recommended practices for monitoring cargo in ports, in order to ensure the integrity of the cargo in the port and hence throughout the supply chain.