DHL Global Forwarding is working with MSA Security, a New York, US-headquartered global security firm, in a partnership that sees the latter provide explosive detection canine screening of air cargo.
The formal partnership has developed out of a small pilot dating back to 2016, one that anticipated the US Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) Third-Party Canine (3PK9) Program, but it is now in its third year.
MSA has over 100 explosive detection canine teams, known as Windsor Teams, to screen cargo for various clients. The partnership between MSA and DHL Global Forwarding was one of the first of its kind, it pointed out.
“Once we learned the TSA would be allowing third-party canine providers to screen cargo for explosives, we immediately reached out to MSA because of their stellar reputation,” recalled Timothy Upham, head of the TSA Program for DHL Global Forwarding.
“We wanted to incorporate canines into our program early to prepare for the transition. We were pleased to discover that information from our pilot with MSA was also valuable to TSA as it shaped the 3PK9 Program.”
Marc Murphy, MSA’s director of air cargo and aviation, remarked: “The partnership with DGF [DHL Global Forwarding] demonstrates for the cargo environment what has already been proven through years of research – properly trained canines are the most effective and efficient method of explosive detection screening.
“Consistent with the results of the Department of Defense DARPA [Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency] research project in the early 2000s, this partnership showed canine screening were more than ten times as efficient as other methods, including X-ray and explosive trace detection,” he added.
On the back of this thinking, DHL Global Forwarding deployed MSA Windsor Teams as a secondary layer of screening while it awaited the official launch of the 3PK9 Program in 2018. In December 2018, MSA became the first company to be certified as a CCSF-K9 provider, enabling DHL to seamlessly transition to canines as the primary method of screening.
Currently, MSA Windsor Teams screen at 15 DHL Global Forwarding sites across the US, including JFK and Los Angeles International Airport.
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