Secure Homeland

Importers and exporters are increasingly under pressure to comply with government mandates aimed at combating the threat of terrorism. For example, the Bio Terrorism Act of 2002 (Section 307, Prior Notice) mandates that all food shipments scheduled for arrival at US ports be registered within 24 hours. Accordingly, such shipments should be labeled with information about product origin that can be traced in movement from the grower and/or manufacturer. The US alone receives nearly 7 million cargo containers at its ports annually, with approximately 20% containing food and food products.

SSI's track and trace technology is well suited to address the complex challenges posed by the myriad of Homeland Security initiatives, both in the US and abroad, related to cross-border container shipments. The enormity of this task is illustrated by the fact that each year some 200 million sea cargo containers move among the world's top seaports.  

By utilizing SSI's patented construction, deconstruction and reconstruction methodology, shipping information is transmitted to SSI's secure Web application, reduced to a two-dimensional composite, printed on weather-and substance-resistant "license plates" and placed on related containers for shipment to US ports. Upon arrival at a US port, Customs and the Border Patrol, using SSI-enabled, wireless bar code scanners (with RFID reader capabilities for future use) utilizes a unique one dimensional linear bar code to complete the existing two dimensional code provided.  This completed code comes with a URL that when accessed wirelessly, will reveal the entire manifest of the container.

This will significantly enhance the security of containers entering US ports.