New US security rules for cargo shipments, to take effect this autumn, are causing concern among the shipper community and to carriers.
Among other things, cargo carriers will be required to notify customs electronically of what they are carrying, where it comes from and where it is going, from 30min to 4h before it reaches the US port of entry. Previously, most carriers could present such information on arrival.
The deadlines, however, are less onerous than the time limits originally proposed by the Department of Homeland Security, and industry figures have said they can live with the new rules. As proposed, carriers handling imports will transmit cargo data 4h before arrival.
The proposal is less controversial than a move in the US Congress to require screening of all belly-hold cargo, including that from known shippers. House leaders objected to the plan proposed by Massachusetts democratic representative Ed Markey, because no generally accepted technology exists to deal with cargo on pallets.
Under the current system, all packages except US mail shipped aboard passenger jets must come from companies that are part of the known-shipper programme. Mail weighing over 1lb (0.5kg) is carried only if it originated at an airport where the agency is conducting screening tests using dogs. The weight limit comes from research on the amount of explosive required to down an airliner.
But the Markey plan for mandatory screening would, in the words of one airline executive, put carriers "out of the belly-cargo business". US airlines derive $3 billion a year from cargo business.
Source: Airline Business
