MARAD Announces Test Results for Five Electronic Security Seals
On January 7, 2004, the Department of Transportation's (DOT's) Maritime Administration (MARAD) issued a press release announcing that the Cargo Handling Cooperative Program (CHCP), a partnership between MARAD and private industry, has released the results of testing it performed on five electronic security seals (e-seals) proposed for use on intermodal freight containers.
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CHCP notes that the goal of this testing was not to select a "winner" (i.e. a seal which would become an industry standard) but rather to develop the technical baseline that will help government and industry stake-holders select appropriate solutions based on security, operational, and economic requirements.
(MARAD sources state that although this report was first produced in July 2003, it has been through some edits. These sources state that the final version of this report is now posted to MARAD's Web site.)
CHCP Tests Four Radio Frequency e-Seals and One Non-Radio Frequency e-Seal
MARAD states that the e-seals have container information and can show if the seal has been subjected to tampering. The tested seals can be "read" by direct contact or on a specific radio frequency (RF) which varies with the type of seal.
RF e-seals were evaluated from four manufacturers that are currently supplying e-seals to the marketplace. In addition, CHCP evaluated one non-RF e-seal solution which has similar functionality in terms of security and data as the other tested e-seals but uses a contact memory linkage to transmit data instead of an RF link.
The four RF e-seals tested were eSeal by eLogicity, DataSeal by Hi-G-Tek, SmartSeal by Savi, and AllSeal by All Set Tracking. The non-RF e-seal tested was MacSema Navalink by CGM.
Test Results Emphasize Need for Standards in e-Seal Design & Operations
CHCP explains that the results of all the testing and evaluation efforts indicate that, as an overall product, e-seals are relatively mature and are based on technologies that have been proven in many other applications. CHCP states that there are no identified problems with the underlying technologies that would prevent immediate wide-scale deployment within the container industry.
However, CHCP also stated that the results of the testing and evaluation clearly emphasize the need for standards in the area of e-seal design and operations. CHCP notes that if there is to be any sort of interoperability of devices used by the various carries and shippers in the industry, then it is critical to develop a set of standards that will allow communication between e-seals and readers from various manufacturers.
CHCP explains that e-seals from different manufacturers use not only different communication frequencies but also widely different communication protocols, reader infrastructure architectures, and tamper detection methods. Beyond simply specifying a frequency at which e-seals should operate, CHCP believes it will be absolutely necessary to establish standards for data, communication protocols, seal placement, and reader placement.
(See ITT's Online Archives or 06/25/03 news, 03062500, for BP summary of CHCP's preliminary test results.)
MARAD's press release (MARAD 01-04, dated 01/07/04) available at http://www.marad.dot.gov/Headlines/announcements/2004/marad0104%20e-seals.html
CHCP's Container Seal Technologies and Processes, Phase IFinal Report (dated 07/11/03) available athttp://www.marad.dot.gov/programs/index.htmlscroll down to "Port, Intermodal and Environmental Activities - Domestic Operations" and select "E-seals Report"