The initiative was welcomed by mayor Bart De Wever, who sees the new procedures as another step in the war against drug trafficking through the port. “Setting up raids to catch the dealers red-handed is not enough,” he says. “We all know that this kind of traffic originates on the other side of the world.”

Organised crime will go to great lengths to secure their logistic chain, explains Beerlandt. “Last year we discovered that there had been attempts to hack into the ICT system of our MSC Home Terminal, which is run by PSA Antwerp.” Beerlandt also admits that some MSC staff have been approached to leak the pin codes needed for the release of the containers. “Eventually this turned out to be one of the weaknesses within the old system. So far, not a single box has left our terminal illegally, but even then we must have a better registration method. We handle up to 3,000 lorries per day, after all.”

Neutral portal

The new release procedure is based on a secured website, managed by an independent partner specialising in data management and security. Every client who needs a container to be picked up is taken through a set of authentication and identification processes produced by the website. In the new system, the pin codes are entirely generated by the computer and no longer through human intervention. The second phase will introduce the “broken code” principle, in which only the first part of the code will be generated by the computer. The second part will only be added after registration at the terminal.

When the log-in process has been carried out correctly, the client can produce a survey of all the containers that have been assigned to them at all times, including status messages. “These functionalities will turn this new release system into a future-oriented tool for the day-today business of Belgian companies,” says Beerlandt. Still, the new release system is only a first step in the port’s crime-fighting strategy, he says.

Paperless system

PSA Antwerp managing director Jan Van Mossevelde fully endorses the initiative taken by MSC Belgium. “We will give whatever support necessary to roll out this system in the port,” he says. “As the largest terminal operator in the port, we feel very strongly about safety, efficiency and transparency.”

For PSA Antwerp, the new containerrelease system is part of a wider strategy of going fully electronic. “It is easier to trace the origins of electronic documents than to find out where the paper has originated from,” Van Mossevelde says. “MSC Belgium and PSA Antwerp are committed to providing the port of Antwerp with an integrated environment, in which container pick-up will be as secure as a bank transaction.”

For MSC, too, the new technology is part of an on-going process. “As for narcotics smuggling, we already had a dissuasion policy in place for our sea-going staff, using sniffer dogs,” says Beerlandt. “What we are aiming at now is tightening up the way in which containers are released in the port.”