Starbucks to arm containers with security device
Starbucks Corp. said Wednesday it will install a security device that detects unauthorized opening of container doors on all shipments of coffee beans from Guatemala to the United States and Europe.
The coffee company is the first commercial customer for CommerceGuard, the container security device manufactured by GE Security.
Starbucks said its selection was based on three months of testing in which the device accurately recorded all door openings.
The device, about the size of a stapler, magnetically attaches to the inside of the container and uses an electronic proximity sensor to detect and record when the door is opened. The identification number and status of the box is uploaded to fixed or handheld readers at ports, railheads, truck yards or warehouses by short-wave radio. The information is then transmitted from the readers by wireless communications to a GE database that can be accessed by authorized customers and customs authorities.
The internally mounted device is considered a step up from electronic seals, which can be bypassed by criminals who know how to remove and replace the entire door without disturbing the seal on the exterior handle.
Containers are often opened by criminals to steal the contents and to place contraband inside for smuggling purposes. Security experts say terrorists could use a container to deliver a weapon of mass destruction into the United States for an attack
Starbucks officials said the device provides them better security and increased visibility into the location of the container, which can help coordinate on-time deliveries and reduce the need for extra inventory.
Starbucks is moving out on its own with the security device even though U.S. Customs and Border Protection is still evaluating it as part of its Smart Box initiative. The agency has said a tamper-evident device will become the centerpiece of its Green Lane effort to eliminate time-consuming inspections for pre-approved shippers that belong to the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism.
GE Security officials say they have corrected problems with nuisance alarms and that the false positive rate now falls well below the 1 percent threshold required by CBP and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security. The false reads are a function of the stresses that maritime containers are subjected to at sea, on the road or during loading and unloading.
In the latest tests conducted by Johns Hopkins University for CBP, the GE device had a 99.7 percent success rate on 1,000 container moves for several major importers, according to GE Security officials. In January, General Manager Randy Koch said that 4 percent of the containers devices had problems with their internal clocks used to place a time and date stamp on each electronic status message transmitted by the device. The problem has since been corrected, he said.
During a House hearing last week on the Dubai Ports World controversy, Jayson Ahern, assistant commissioner for field operations, testified that the container security device is achieving a 94 percent accurate rate. Asked afterwards about the discrepancy, he said that the device has fallen down after reaching a 97 percent accuracy level without nuisance alarms.
GE officials argue that the container security devices themselves are accurate 99 percent of the time and that the other failures have been corrected. Koch has said that problems such as arming and disarming the device are separate issues that will be corrected once GE moves from the prototype phase to more rigorous commercial-grade manufacturing.
Failures attributable to installation problems are a quality control issue that can be solved by training, and a one or two minute drift in time doesn’t impact the value of data that is recorded at wide intervals ranging from hours to days, said private sector officials familiar with CBP’s testing.
Large conglomerates Mitsubishi Corp. and Siemens have signed on the past five months as minority investors in CommerceGuard AB, the GE Security subsidiary that is making the container security device. The two companies will market and distribute the system in Europe and Asia.
