01/14/2010 - Truck security: Protection against attacks with secure parking lots

International studies indicate that 42 percent of all road cargo thefts take place on unsecured and unmonitored parking lots. To provide better protection for truck drivers and their cargoes against attacks, in June 2007 the EU initiated the project SETPOS (Secured Truck Parking Operation Services). The aim was to define uniform pan-European standards for secure truck parking areas and to create an information, parking guidance and reservation system for all types of truck parking lots. The project was successfully completed at the end of February, and its successor project LABEL was initiated. This project aims at introducing a classification and certification system for parking areas, and at having certified at least 70 parking areas in 10 countries by June 2010. Not only security criteria like access control systems, perimeter fencing and camera surveillance but also quality features like comfort, cleanliness and the range of food and refreshments on offer all flow into the evaluation. This is an approach that has been a matter of routine for years already at Time Shuttle, a logistics company specializing in the transportation of theft-prone, time-critical goods. In audits they carried out on their own initiative, these specialists in high-security logistics have long since evaluated all the parking lots along the routes driven by their trucks. As a result, before starting their transport runs, drivers are always issued with binding specifications about the parking areas they are permitted to stop at during their journeys. "We are extremely aware of how crucial the right choice of parking lots is for transport security, and we take this into full consideration when planning the routes," says Heiner Haller, Senior Manager Operations at Time Shuttle.
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