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Six steps to securing logistics

Hi-Tech Security Solutions asked Piet Du Preez, national risk manager at UTi Pharma, for his insights into security in the logistics world. Du Preez broke down the task into six sections he believes are critical to securing your logistics operation.

Piet Du Preez, national risk manager at UTi Pharma.

1. Warehousing: Secure warehousing of inventory is very high on the list. The security around this aspect carries a high priority to ensure the safekeeping of the stock and avoid pilfering or shrinkage. There needs to be global security standards in place to accomplish this.

For example, warehouse doors during the receiving or distribution of freight are to remain closed and secured at all times and only opened when moving freight in or out of the warehouse, which must only take place under tight security measures.

2. Receiving: When receiving freight into the warehouse, it is important to ensure the correct stock is being received and correctly added to the stock list.

3. Distribution: When distributing freight, it is also undertaken under strict security and once the freight is loaded, the vehicle is sealed and double-checked before leaving the site. Randomly the vehicles are selected for an additional check to ensure no pilfered stock leaves the site.

4. Tracking: An important function of safeguarding vehicles is to know their whereabouts at all times. This is the major countermeasure against hijacking. There are several methods to track vehicles during road transportation and each courier company has a tracking system installed that meets their requirements best.

Ideally, tracking must be done live and in real time. Tracking companies provide connectivity for individual transporters to interface with their systems and allow them to track their own vehicles. In the process of a hijacking, there are a number of signals that will trigger an alarm to alert the control centre that a hijacking is in progress.

In this day and age, with sophisticated electronic equipment, the perpetrators make use of sophisticated jamming devices to jam any signals being sent to the control centre to alert them.

5. Escorting: At times it may be necessary to have armed escorts with the vehicles when carrying high-value items. This is another important process in the anti-hijacking procedure. The procedures are standardised with anomalies addressed by exceptions. At times, clients request escorts to safeguard their freight during transportation. All escorts are armed and have their individual tracking procedures.

6. Processes: One deciding factor in the secure logistics area is to constantly revise processes, routes and packaging to avoid potential criminal syndicates being able to analyse our work processes.

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