Page 22 - Sphere No.15 (Nov 2005)

SPHERE 20
major impetus by the horrific events of September 11, 2001.
Even before 9/11 the potential dangers of attacks through civil
transport networks had been recognised. Stephen Flynn, a
port security expert and senior fellow at the US Council for
Foreign Relations who had worked for both the Clinton and
Bush administrations, had repeatedly warned about how con-
tainers could be turned into lethal weapons.
With 9/11 the threat of huge attacks became real. Preventing
the use of transport facilities as terrorist weapons became an
overriding imperative. HPH recognised the huge contribution
that cargo tracking technology could make to transport secu-
rity. Although it does not own ports in the US itself, as the
world’s largest port operator a large proportion of cargoes
bound for the US are routed through its ports. At least 40 per
cent of containers entering the US are handled by HPH at
some point in their journey.
This put the company in a unique position to work with the
US government on ensuring the integrity of boxes moving in
and out of the country. So HPH took the initiative to work
with the US authorities on how Savi Networks technology can
be used to alert the authorities to any tampering with contain-
ers during transit. Since 9/11 John Meredith, HPH Group
Managing Director, has spent a lot of time working with US
government agencies to explore how HPH can help ensure the
security of cargoes entering the US. This task has been com-
plicated by the fact that no single department is responsible
for port and transportation security issues. Mr Meredith has
been working with US Customs, the State Department and
other agencies, as well as with committees of the Senate and
the House of Representatives.
Mr Meredith’s work has led to many initiatives to reduce the
risk of major terrorist attacks. For example, in close partner-
ship with the US Department of Energy and with European
Union security agencies, HPH has installed “sniffer” devices
to check for radiation in a number of ports, including Hong
Kong, Felixstowe (UK), Rotterdam and the Bahamas. These
sniffers can detect the neutrons given off by “dirty bombs”,
which could cause huge damage to life and property if they
were to reach targets in densely populated urban areas.
HPH and Savi have now undertaken many trials, involving
thousands of containers. These trials have been so successful
that use of container tracking technology is likely to be made
mandatory very soon, first by the US and then by EU member
states. All container traffic originating in or destined for these
countries will have to be monitored, significantly reducing the
likelihood of any security breach.
Win-win situation
With its Savi Networks initiative, HPH is in the position of
promoting a service that offers huge advantages to all con-
>>now a container’s journey
>> HPH took the initiative to work with