Governments and port authorities acknowledge that the 17 million cargo containers in use around the world are clearly the weak link in national security arrangements. Import/exporters and manufacturers understand that poor container security poses a risk to the goods they contain. Because there are so many players in the global freight ecosystem and the problem is distributed in thousands of ports and transport hubs around the world, attempts to improve it have been inadequate.

"Efforts are under way to create a uniform standard for electronic container security and should bear fruit within the next 12 months," said ABI Research analyst, Robert Foppiani. "But getting shippers and port operators to comply and to invest in costly systems that provide little or no ROI is quite another matter. Everyone wants to improve security, but all the maritime industry players are looking to each other to be the first to invest. An organization such as the World Customs Organization needs to mandate electronic seal standards. Until some of these stakeholders make hard decisions, the situation will remain unsatisfactory."

"In the container security tracking market it is common for a solution to use one main technology and a few ancillary technologies in unison to fill a gap," said Foppiani. "Different solutions tend to offer varying ranges of geographic coverage and security features at different price levels. Cellular and satellite communications are examples of technologies being used in unison with RFID to relay information to the end users. There are trade offs between cellular and satellite in terms of coverage and cost," he added.

Technologies that have been used in solutions are WiFi and Bluetooth. Ultrawideband is another example of a technology that is still being developed for solutions, but is speculated to be used further on down the road. It is expected that different types of technologies with different trade offs will continue to emerge and be tested and piloted in the coming years.
Several manufacturers--General Electric, Savi Technology and IBM--are designing electronic container security systems. GE's is called "CommerceGuard." ABI Research has examined its key elements and found shortcomings that highlight some of the critical issues facing any attempt to secure containers. CommerceGuard is a proprietary system. That seems a major drawback for a system which, to be effective, must work identically in thousands of facilities worldwide. In addition, unlike other systems that use disposable tags, CommerceGuard's are reusable, implying a massive "recycling" operation to move used tags to their next point of use. However, shippers are unlikely to accept any such solution.

"Because the container electronic security market is still quite immature, it is difficult for government to specify a single technology as a cure-all solution," concluded Foppiani. "But until something is done, security will continue to suffer."