Port, road, rail, and air facilities in Australasia are increasingly looking at ways to enhance site security amid rising cases of theft, commercial data penetration, and trafficking of illegal goods and substances in the logistics industry, according to a global entry solutions provider.
This as the logistics industry has taken to implementing 24/7 responsiveness to world markets, which brings forth new security issues, said Boon Edam.
The firm said more people are requiring access at different times to sensitive areas of a company’s operations, including goods handling, data centers, dispatch, and financial and proprietary information across facilities that may be working multiple shifts.
This gives rise to the issue of how logistics facilities can provide high security even when security staff is scarce.
One solution, said Boon Edam, is to install access security products designed for areas ranging from outdoor company perimeters and interior areas to top-security facilities.
The company cited the case of a multipurpose Pacific Rim terminal where the firm installed full-height turnstiles as part of a large-scale physical security plan to protect one of the largest marine terminals in the region from criminal activity.
“A.P. Moller Maersk was awarded management of this particular terminal for a period of 30 years. At that time, all entry control and registration activities were performed manually by security staff, which detracted from the effectiveness of procedures and controls,” it said.
The terminal invested in new access control equipment designed to modernize visitor and employee application processing and auditing standards for objectivity and efficiency.
In addition to the full-height turnstiles, the terminal installed biometric access control systems, electronic barriers for vehicle access, a module to manage visitors, and software to register and control personnel access with capabilities such as automatic locks and anti-passback capabilities, among others. The system operates 24/7/365 in order to service the high level of traffic.
“The product families involved—which have been proven globally with distribution extending over 27 countries—are engineered to provide a cost-efficient way to regulate access to a facility without having to employ an army of security people or to construct facilities that look like a fortress,” said Boon Edam Australia managing director Michael Fisher.
“This is particularly true of businesses such as logistics facilities that are part of globally fast-moving industries that have to be able to provide immediate access to people who are entitled to have it—but to exclude unwanted visitors posing threats to physical and cyber security,” he said.
