New container seal may impact on human trafficking

A container seal originally designed to seal empty containers as part of the fight against human trafficking met with little success in the marketplace, with most container users unaware of the enormity of this trade in human flesh. But, said Harry Jolliffe, CEO of Jolseal, this seal has proved itself in another way – an event which may indirectly impact on human trafficking. His patented block number design guarantees that every hand-written copy of the bolt seal number is transferred in a format that is exactly the same shape and size every time, he told FTW. “This will allow the Camco Autogate (the port authority’s new access control system) to read and transfer information electronically,” he added. “We have conducted trials where we instructed children between the ages of 6 and 10 to copy the numbers from the bolt seal onto the Jolseal. And, in each and every case their transcript was 100% accurate.” This will be added to the Autogate reading the trucks’ number plates as well as information from the trailer “This seal is written in a language that allows the system to capture the seal number off the exterior right hand side container door and transfer electronically via OCR to the terminal operating system,” Jolliffe said. Jolseal is currently in the process of conducting hands-on, live tests. “MSC has come on board to assist us,” he said, “using outbound containers as well as inbound. We are confident that the information obtained from these live tests will add value to the overall product.”