Speeding up the Supply Chain

With Faster, More Accurate Vehicle Scanning

Scanning cargo on trucks or trains at borders presents logistical challenges similar to those at seaports, with equally important economic and security consequences. To avoid bottlenecks, scanning must be active but non-invasive, with volume and speed of throughput great enough to avoid long waits or traffic backups at border crossings.

Since passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), trade between the U.S. and Mexico alone has ballooned to more than $330 billion a year, with 70,000 trucks per day passing through customs on the busy border. Tractor-trailers often idle in line for hours while waiting to reach the U.S. Customs checkpoint. All vehicles go through X-ray inspections and some are subject to more exhaustive inspections by agents vigilant for everything from weapons of mass destruction to illegal drugs and stow-away migrants to unlicensed merchandise and invasive species of insects.

Because Passport technologies can be set to register alarms for virtually any materials, even when they are shielded, they can meet the need for high detection efficiency, low false positives, and monitoring for specific materials such as drugs, explosives, fissile materials or commercial contraband. They can be configured to allow vehicles to rapidly pass through its scanners, stopping traffic flow only when an automatic alert requires further inspection of the cargo. By identifying the fingerprint of each cargo item, its mass, and its location, Passport technologies can quickly and decisively distinguish between benign and threatening materials.