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Eurotunnel's container security consultancy


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Eurotunnel, which operates the channel tunnel between the UK and France, has set up a subsidiary, Port Maritime Security International Ltd, to offer consultancy services in container scanning.

Eurotunnel believes it is the only organisation in the world which has a long and successful track record in container and truck scanning.

For 11 years, since Eurotunnel opened (check 11), the company has been scanning trucks and containers going through the tunnel by X-ray, when the UK was faced with terrorist threats from the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

"We've been 100 per cent successful - in that nothing has ever gone off in the tunnel," says David Anthony, commercial manager of PMSi.

"We believe we are the most experienced company in the world with regards to container scanning. There's no other company that has been cargo scanning as long as we have. We are a reference point for the world." 

Eurotunnel is keen to sell its methods to other ports around the world, with regards to the operational layout of the scanning, how the teams are trained, and how the traffic flow is analysed. 

"We have the expertise with regards to the equipment, operation of the equipment, training of the operatives of the equipment, selection of the equipment," says Mr Anthony.

"We found that - there are so many people that have jumped on the bandwagon with respect to security, there are numerous consultants out there - there are very few companies that actually deal with security," he says. 


Eurotunnel undertakes to inspect a specific percentage of all trucks and containers; it will not disclose the specific percentage apart from saying that it is "very high in comparison to many other ports around the world." 

"There must be must be a high enough percentage of containers inspected to be an effective deterrent," he says. "You hear people talk in the region of 1 to 2 per cent - I wouldn't think that would be a high deterrent. You would need to put a nought on those numbers. 

Port Maritime Security has now made a tie-up with Intertek Foreign Trade Standards, which provides intelligence about shippers. The two companies together intend to help governments and port authorities around the world work out how to make themselves more secure. 

"Intertek has the intelligence - looking at the supply chains," he says.

"We spend a lot of time with those companies - we have a very good understanding of supply chain," he says. "We talk to customers in the retail industries."

"At the end of the day consumers drive the supply chain. That's why its very important to have an understanding of the user."
 
 
 

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Technology and the human eye

Port Maritime Security uses X-ray scanning to examing the inside of the containers. "Its very similar to baggage scanning," he says. "But the size of the baggage you are scanning is somewhat small in comparison to the box."

The X-rays need to be strong enough to penetrate a 2.5m wide box. 

The picture also needs to be able to show an enormous amount of detail. "It's a huge picture," he says. "You're looking at a 40 foot box. You can imagine what the UPL and Fedex consolidations look like."

"You have to interpret the image in a fairly fixed amount of time."

Eurotunnel allows 10 minutes total for scanning containers, including choosing which vehicles to scan, 4 minutes to do the scan and 5 to 6 minutes to interpret the cargo. 

There are around 3,000 trucks and containers moving per day in each direction of the tunnel, so the scanning department is pretty busy. 

The X-ray pictures are examined by trained human beings, not by computers.

"We haven't found anything better than the human eyeball - to analyse pictures," he says. "There's a lot of technology out there but it doesn't beat a well trained operative."

"You can see all types of objects," he says. "You're looking at the density of the item. For example - if you look at a complete container load of sugar - you can see the density."

A big area with one density with a small area of different density inside it could indicate a stash of drugs hidden in a large cargo of sugar.

Operators are trained to look for explosives and for wires of about a millimetre thickness that could indicate an explosives triggering device.

Eurotunnel does not automatically recommend X-ray technology over gamma rays, he says.

"There's a continuous argument with regard to X-ray and gamma," he says. "Both types of technology are suitable for different aspects."

"Some people are looking for people inside the container - some people look for drugs, some people look for arms, some people look for weapons of mass destruction."

"Its not an easy fix," he says.  That's where we spend a lot of time with our clients, looking at how their environment operates, then we make recommendations," he says. "We're not tied to any of the manufacturers. We work with all of them."