The truck transportation system in the United States is probably the single most vulnerable and also the single most important cog in our economy. The very economic health of our Nation relies on the safe and secure movement of cargo. As they say, “Good Stuff, Trucks Bring It!" The truth is that not only ‘good stuff’ but “most stuff" is brought by trucks. Trucks and trailers are no more than moving warehouses with no gates nor guards. Left alone, the system works just fine. In the event of an act of economic terrorism through the use of a truck we virtually shut down our highways and our ports. A weapon of mass effect delivered by a truck immediately brings our economy to a screeching halt. Remember the port strike of 2004. This economic event caused billions of losses to companies, to people and certainly to the transportation industry as a whole. How long would it take to reconcile a bomb in a US port?
As a nation, we need to look more closely at the vulnerability of all vehicles; including busses, garbage trucks and fire engines. These vehicles can easily be used to deliver a weapon almost at will. Who will challenge a fire engine racing down a main street or towards a bridge? Who will know that Greyhound bound for Houston is ill intentioned?
The key to transportation security must lie with both the operator to employ security procedure and products and to the owner to provide these tools and training. Collectively, operators on the whole, are infrequently owners, so the thrust of security countermeasure funding must be focused on owners and municipalities. Providing security is a requisite and inherent responsibility of the industry that most benefits from their use. Owner operators are also key to the success of any program and they must also play a role in the deployment of these devices. The fact is they have more to loose that larger companies in many theft related incidents!
Just like Highway Watch has empowered drivers to assist in National security efforts, so must the awareness created by the magnitude of the threat of cargo terrorism be brought into the spotlight for the trucking industry. In a recent visit to the TMC and to the Mid America truck show, the author saw little awareness and even less focus on these threats than you would expect. More people seemed interested in chrome and flash than security technology.
How can the transportation industry choose the best methodology to reduce their unique risk while not breaking the bank on security technology? With all the hype on GPS and electronics, transportation providers often get confused between what is a logistic tool and what is a security tool? The answer to security rests in the development of a threat assessment, germane to your place in the supply chain, vs. to cost to implement a suitable defense.
To develop such a plan you need to begin with an understanding of what you have to fear, how your company would suffer from a catastrophe or theft, your resources, what the cost of an event would be to you, what your cost of recovery would be, the damage an event would do to your brand and a basic understanding of your inherent vulnerability. This is called a threat assessment. Threat probability is not an exact science, and as such can be developed by most any logical means you desire. Metrics do help to tell any story better that simple discussions which diminish the real cost of a loss. By the use of a simple system where you assign a metric to each category of loss and the probability of each condition happening. You come up with an understandable chart. If you come up with high probability at an affordable cost to prevent it, your can act accordingly. If you come up squeaky clean with little to no chance of suffering and event, and then of course you need not fret!
A typically threat matrix would look like the following chart:
|
Event |
Probability |
Cost of Loss Per event |
Recovery time |
|
Bomb Placed in Truck
Delivered to Store |
M |
$1,000,000+ Loss of Life |
Months |
|
Tanker used to
Blow up Bridge |
M |
$10,000,000 + Loss of Life |
Months |
|
Truck Stolen and
Shipped to Cuba
Contents taken |
M |
$200,000 Truck
Cargo?
Lost opportunity cost
$250,000 |
Months |
|
Bus Stolen and
Driven into building
With Explosives |
M |
$Millions |
Months |
|
Fire Truck used in
The same manner |
M |
$Millions |
Months |
|
Truck Stolen and Cargo Missing |
H |
$500,000 |
Weeks |
|
Container delivered to a
Port and detonated |
H |
$Billions |
Years |
|
Delivery Truck entered and
Food Contents tampered with |
M |
$millions in recalls plus
Possible loss of life |
Months |
|
Garbage truck parked in
Front of building and detonated |
M |
$millions plus loss of
Life |
Months |
As with anything obvious to us all, threats to our personal security and to our Nations security are real and cannot be discounted or ignored. Threats from thieves and now threats from terrorists can adversely affect us now and for years to come. With six years under our belt after 9/11, we still cannot begin to comprehend the profound adverse affect this event had on each of us. Our very way of life has been rocked and our future has been changed forever. Our economy will be in debt for 50 more years and our sons and daughters are once again off at war.
Can this type of tragedy be avoided in the future? Could it have been avoided in 2001? The answer to both questions is yes, but at what cost? By looking at the list of possible events, which would you choose… none I hope, but if one did happen what would that do to our fragile economy? How long would your company take to recover from the loss of your good name or from the loss of your employee’s? What price would you have to pay (or be willing to pay) then to get things ‘back to normal’? No one wants to think of that possibility but without a basic proactive plan to reduce your exposure to risk, it cannot possibly be avoided.
Security is everyone’s business. Building anything from scratch, you need plans and tools. Planning covers the probability, which is all but certain, but tools provide the ability to avoid the event and must be evaluated based on their effectiveness. Tools for security harden the target and create avoidance as a defense. Many of us have a hard time defining the benefit of avoidance. I am frequently told, why spend the money, the problem has not happened to me?
Many companies feel that security tools are un-necessary, too expensive or to difficult to use. Anyone can rationalize anything away. Former President Clinton was a great role model for that! Transportation providers and municipalities, along with government, must become realists and fund for both the possible event and a viable defense deployed throughout our transportation system. We need to create the reality of these threats as part of our daily business strategy.
While we do tend to create more secure yards and workplaces, we fail miserably in protecting the assets we deploy out on the road. Our vehicles are often parked at warehouses, in truck stops and on clients yards where they are unattended and vulnerable. Yards seem to be more visible to managers and therefore they get more attention.
Global Positioning devices in tractors is the current buzz. Our concept of GPS being a security tool is easily debunked by a simple test of the process associated with theft or terrorism. What would you do if you were stealing a truck or hijacking a bus or fire engine that had a GPS system? That answer is simply cut the wire, and zap, you’re invisible. Even if the act were discovered, who would be prepared 24/7 to respond… certainly not law enforcement. The GPS tool has NO effect on protecting the asset from theft and therefore whatever was spent on it dedicated to a security platform or justification is wasted 100%! Drivers know that a piece of tin foil placed over a GPS antenna attenuates the signal from it which makes you invisible until it is removed. Lot’s of unknown trips to Mama can bear that fact out. That is NOT news or a revelation! The use of GPS is logistical brilliant. By serving the owner with real-time data, location and asset information; companies see immediate payback and cost justification. Somehow security tools do not get evaluated in this same way?
The power of the GPS platform is truly a profit center. The cost is quickly justified by anyone able to see the advantages of real time knowledge within the transportation industry. What is lacking in business decisions which do not embrace the need for security tools is puzzlement? Isn’t physical security worth the expense? Isn’t physical security on average 1/20th of the cost of GPS? Isn’t the cost an asset loss significantly greater than the logistical value of knowing where your assets are? Let’s see how this shakes out.
A fleet of 100 tractors and trailers can employ any number of security devices, but let’s focus on air brake locks for the tractors and trailers. These cost less than $300 per tractor and $400 per trailer. The $60,000 cost is a one time event with an amortization, let’s say over 1 year. The same fleet can use a GPS system at a cost of about $1500 per tractor with nothing active on the trailer. This does not include a monitoring fee of $200 per month each and people dedicated to monitoring these events. If a tractor is stolen the cost of the units is about $125,000, if it is out of service due to the theft, that adds another $200,000 in lost revenue and if it needs to be repaired and services for damage when recovered that adds another $5,000… being conservative. If you lost a load with it you have to add your liability cost to your client (especially if you are self insured) which can be a significant number, easily over $25,000, again being ultra conservative.
With a GPS installed operating efficiency is certainly increased, possibility resulting in some monetary savings in a logistical sense, but certainly equaling the cost of the investment in the system.
So let’s review, a high probability of loss exists from theft on a daily basis, a high to moderate probability exists of an act of terrorism being carried out through the use of a stolen vehicle, but somehow no justification seems to exist for the mandated use of security tools to prevent these problems? Recovery costs alone out weight any expenditure for common security tools. The fact is that after a loss, the real costs equate to 5 to 25 times the cost of the original loss and in many cases they can higher. Since most truckers and cities are self insured isn’t it remarkable that security tools rarely get on their radar screen for their fleets?
What’s out there in the way of devices to deter theft? In order to understand the remedy you need to know the root cause of the problem. Cargo theft in the United States exceeds 10 Billion dollars annually. Most cargo theft is from trucks and rail cars and most occurs while operators are not present. Armed crime, especially in cargo theft is rare. A convicted armed hijacker gets jail time, while a truck thief is prosecuted as a lesser criminal because; by our laws, he has committed an automotive based and victimless crime.. What we define legally as a victimless crime, the person loosing the money or the asset defines as a real out of pocket loss! For an independent trucker that could be his livelihood.
Since unattended tractor and trailers have limited means to protect them, air brakes become the first line of defense when attached and out on the road. By locking the bus or tractors air brakes while the vehicle is unattended, you harden the target for a thief. Time is his enemy, and creating a harder target forces him to use more time to succeed. More expended time reduces the desirability of the target and therefore reduces the probability of the event. The TS4A Air brake locks run about $250 for a tractor and basically outlast the vehicle. Air brake locks are also available for trailers. Both systems use no power and both are seamless to the operation of any vehicle with air brakes.
Containers hauled by trucks are also defenseless rolling warehouses with tremendous value and little to no defense against entry through the swing doors. Locking devices can be installed by truckers even if the doors are already sealed when these units are picked up at dray yards. Devices which can retain the keeper rods from allowing the doors to be opened, protect them from the surreptitious introduction of weapons or the theft of goods while in transit. So go figure, we can purchase a portable door locking device for $60, which we can use for years, which protects us from losses or manipulation of cargo in our care, which like brake locks have no residual cost, but a tremendous payback…. why then don’t we all use them?
Security is everyone’s job. There is no denying that this is a different world than what we are all use to and our industry has to step up to the plate and defend our country from those who would harm us. We need to demand protection of the nation’s softest target! We need to mandate security on all commercial ‘over the road’ and local delivery trucks, busses, garbage trucks and fire engines.
For more information call 941 575 0243 or visit www.airbrakesecurity.com
