Operation Safe Commerce gets thumbs-up

OCS is designed to test and evaluate practices, policies and procedures to improve the security of international containerised shipping. The first OSC test containers arrived at Tacoma in March.

“That original shipment we celebrated five months ago, and the tests that followed, tracked shipments from their origination point – whether that was the factory floor or an agriculture field – to a distribution centre here in Washington State, ” said Murray. “The products travelled by truck, train and ship along their journey, and we watched them every step of the way.

We monitored and analyzed the security at the origination point, every subsequent transfer point, and on each mode of transportation until it reached the customer.

“There are many maritime security efforts underway, ” said Linda Strout, deputy chief executive officer of the Port of Seattle. “But OSC is unique in making ports and the communities around them safer by first securing the cargo that moves through them. OSC also adds value by improving inventory control and expediting the movement of cargo.”

The objective of OSC is to create the knowledge base for possible future international standards for secure containerised shipment – from the overseas point of origin through the supply chain to the U.S. point of distribution.