ADT Worldwide has created an industry team including URS Corp. [URS] and Andy Frain Services to offer the air cargo community a comprehensive solution to meet the 100 percent cargo screening mandate being implemented by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), a company official says.
The team will offer freight forwarders and anyone else requiring services to screen air cargo bound for passenger aircraft for explosives everything from design and construction, the purchase and installation of screening technology, maintenance and support, training and manpower, and compliance tools, Frank Pervola, business development manager at ADT Government Systems, tells TR2. In addition, ADT provides additional security capabilities to meet the requirements of TSA’s Certified Cargo Screening Program (CCSP), including facility security, such as cameras and command and control, and access control, he says at ADT Government System’s annual SecureTech exhibit in Washington, D.C. ADT Worldwide is a division of Tyco [TYC].
URS is the prime contractor on the CCSP team providing engineering and construction services and Andy Frain Services provides training and even outsourced screening operators for all approved TSA equipment. ADT provides the facility security equipment, the screening equipment, and the integration. All three companies’ services are Safety Act certified.
“We bring a package deal and customize it for the particular customer,” Pervola says.
ADT’s CCSP team is preparing to do pilot tests with two freight forwarding companies at five sites at four Category X airports. One customer accounts for four of the locations. TSA is partially funding the purchase of the screening equipment at the locations, which are undisclosed.
For the pilot tests each site will have one X-Ray machine and one explosives trace detector. Pervola says the contractors for the equipment have been selected but contracts are still being negotiated.
For the upcoming CCSP pilot tests the ADT team is doing site surveys, assessing screening requirements as part of the packages and pricing it will propose to the separate freight forwarders on June 16, Pervola says. If the freight forwarders agree, the pilot tests will begin in August and last for 90 days.
ADT’s pilot customers are hoping to move from the CCSP program into being Certified Cargo Screening Facilities, which means they will be able to provide cargo screening to other customers such as freight forwarders and manufacturers for a fee, Pervola says.
ADT is pursuing three business models in its CCSP approach. One is where its team basically provides most, if not all, of its turnkey solution to a customer at an off-airport location. This is the “outsourced solution, A to Z,” he says.
Another model is the menu or solutions provision where a customer can pick what it needs, whether that’s the setup of a facility security solution such as cameras, providing the manpower to do the screening operations, or something else, Pervola says.
The third solution is the “car wash” model where ADT’s team establishes a fee-based screening facility that provides cargo screening services. Pervola says that outside of the upcoming pilot projects the team is working on a car wash concept with a consortium of freight forwarders are saying, “If we build it, they will come to have their cargo screened by us.”
Work toward the pilot programs has taught the ADT team that there is only a certain amount of the work that can be standardized due to differences from one building to the next, Pervola says.
Under a congressional mandate, TSA is responsible for ensuring that 100 percent of cargo bound for passenger aircraft departing from any U.S. airport and arriving at any U.S. airport, be screened for explosives by an Aug. 2010 deadline. TSA is putting the onus for the screening on Indirect Air Carriers, which are freight forwarders of air cargo.