Last week’s attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight heading from Amsterdam to Detroit is bringing the topic of airline security back into focus. While hearings and policy changes will no doubt focus on improving passenger screening processes, the topic of air cargo screening should be given greater scrutiny as well. With wireless technologies like DASH7, which remain “quiet” while on an aircraft, unlike many other wireless technologies which are prohibited, we can provide an inexpensive way of securing cargo at the point of manufacture or customs inspection. Unlike the added benefits (and costs) of improved passenger screening and security, a system like this has the added benefits of providing better in-transit visibility for biotech vendors who are concerned about extreme temperature fluctuations or vibration. For consumer electronics vendors, it provides detailed visibility into whether a pallet of desktop computers was dropped by accident (triggering warranty claims). And for pharma vendors, this provides a layer of anti-counterfeiting and anti-diversion security that barcode or passive RFID cannot provide. Ultimately, this kind of benefit should be extended to passenger luggage which, despite the extensive use of barcodes, last year caused $4 billion in losses for air carriers. Expect to see multiple developments around air cargo and DASH7 in 2010.
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