Monitoring Freight On TheU.S.-Canada Border

Jan 1, 2003 12:00 PM, by JACQUELINE EMIGH

Along the U.S.-Canada border, a public/private initiative dubbed the Northwest Trade Corridor Project is developing a multi-pronged asset tracking system. When the project began four years ago, its goal was to streamline the movement of freight trucks between Washington State and British Columbia. Since Sept. 11, national security became an even more compelling issue.

The new intelligent transportation system (ITS) was designed originally for more efficient compliance with U.S. Customs freight monitoring rules, says Peter Briglia, project manager with the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT).

The freight being tracked is bound for Canada, after first being imported into the United States from Japan through ports in Washington state. Under Customs policy, these shipments can avoid American tariffs if containers are sealed before arriving in the country. Shippers, though, must put up bonds assuring that the containers will reach Canada without being opened in the U.S.

“Traditionally, this was a pencil-and-paper type of transaction. Each time a truck reached a weigh station along the freeway, it was subject to search,” Briglia says.

To improve the flow of shipment information — as well as to cut down on highway traffic jams — special electronic lanes were set up on the road to the Canadian border.

Meanwhile, RFID transponders were attached to truck windows for automatic vehicle identification (AVI). “The tags are a little bit like license plates. By reading them, you can access more detailed manifest information located in our database,” Briglia says.

“When the truck leaves the port, we read the tag. We tell Customs [that it's on the way]. We also send a message to the shipper responsible for the bond. Then, there are multiple reads along the way,” says Bill Steiner, technical director for TransCore's Trade Corridor and Border Crossing Group. “If I'm ‘Yellow Trucking Company,’ I can use the database to see the locations of all the ‘Yellow’ trucks.”

Roadside readers are used to identify shipments as they pass through various gateways. Specifically, the monitoring technology is being deployed at six weigh stations and processing centers along 300 miles of Interstate 5 from Vancouver, Wash., to the Canadian border.

The system sends detailed data about the carrier, vehicle, cargo, location and time of detection, drivers and security status to a central database. The information is then available to Customs agents and freight operators, for example, through a secure Web site. The ITS also opens and closes in-bound freight transactions.

The project ran into a few glitches during its first phase, Briglia concedes. “Some of the roadside readers have gone down. Trucks with no AVIs have gone through the wrong lane.” However, Phase I is now in full deployment.

The project is currently poised to enter a second stage in which trucks headed to the U.S. from Canada will undergo the same kind of electronic monitoring.

Meanwhile, to help support emerging Homeland security initiatives, the Northwest Trade Corridor Project will take asset tracking to another level by affixing electronic seals to the shipping containers, which will work in harmony with the RFID tags on the trucks.

“Since Sept. 11, needs for security have heightened dramatically,” Steiner says. The transponders on the containers are meant to prevent anyone from tampering with the contents of the shipment. Each seal will be programmed with a unique container number.

“The government wants to build a standard,” Steiner says. “We need to find out which products will best meet the requirements. What's the best RF frequency to use, for instance?”

“At this point, it looks as though we're going to test two types of container seals: a disposable seal from eLogicity, and a reusable seal from Hi-G-Tek. After you use the disposable seal, you just cut if off and throw it away. The reusable seal is a little more expensive.”

To support the federal government's Smart Border Declaration, the project is expected to expand to the U.S.-Mexico border.

In a separate initiative, container seals will also be tested by the USDA to keep out types of produce that are not permitted in America, Steiner says.

Additionally, the new asset tracking system is likely to integrate biometrics in the future — for positive ID of the driver.

For the Record

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jacqueline Emigh is a 12-year veteran of technology journalism and a freelance writer for Access Control & Security Systems.

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