E-commerce systems are not geared to identify dangerous goods, often resulting in risk being introduced into the supply chain unknowingly. According to David Alexander, general manager of Professional Aviation Services, e-commerce systems by their very nature facilitate the movement of goods through the supply chain as quickly as possible. “It is about speed more than anything else,” he said at a
recent workshop on dangerous goods. “Many of the suppliers of products use the systems to move their goods, but the e-commerce platform is just the facilitator of the process. This begs the question: How do transporters of the goods – especially in the very regulated air sector – know what is in the parcel being moved?” According to Johan van Niekerk, cargo operations manager at SA Airlink, a lot of emphasis is placed on scanners and other technology solutions at airports to detect dangerous
goods. This, however, is a risky solution, considering the fast-paced nature of cargo transport and the fact that a large amount of cargo is only delivered to the airport a few hours before flights take off. In addition, said Alexander, the X-ray system used to scan cargo was never designed to pick up dangerous goods, but rather, to find prohibited substances and prevent unlawful actions. “The operators of the screening machines are also not focused on dangerous goods but on their primary focus, which is prohibitive substances,” he said. “It is a dangerous and irresponsible approach to rely on screening at the airport to track and find dangerous cargo.”
Alexander said that while an operator would in all probability find a knife or a firearm, the majority of dangerous substances would go undetected unless this became the focus and there was extensive training on the subject. He said the first step to take in addressing the threat of increased dangerous goods in the system, due to increased levels of e-commerce, was to introduce processes that verified where cargo came from. “The more the supply chain carries unknown goods, the higher the risk,” he said. Amazon, the world’s secondlargest retailer after
Walmart, has introduced a programme that attempts to identify dangerous items such as lithium ion batteries and aerosol cans, but it entails only a document process, with no physical verification. “Anyone can state just about anything on that document and who is going to know?” said Alexander.
CAPTION:
It is about speed more than anything else. – David Alexander
