Airports, carriers face additional costs as a result of 100 percent cargo inspections

counts,” which are harder to screen.

Mann notes that one major problem will be pallets that contain hundreds of individual pieces of freight. The entire pallet cannot be scanned because the materials often have different densities. The pallet must be broken down so that individual packages can be scanned or opened for examination.

Additional screening will increase shipping costs. “Screening at the airline dock is a very expensive and time consuming process,” Brooks noted. “Ultimately, any additional costs will fall upon the shoulders of the consumers.”

Some in the air cargo industry believe that many companies — whether shippers or freight forwarders — are not ready to meet the deadline. “It’s going to be a nightmare,” said Gary Goldfarb, executive vice president of WTDC, a Miami-based supply chain management company. “You’re going to have a line of trucks waiting to have their cargo screened at the [Miami] airport. A lot of freight forwarders haven’t paid attention to the August 1 deadline yet. They expect the TSA regulation will be delayed or postponed,” he added.

Mann writes that others were more optimistic. “Are there going to be delays, especially at major airports? Yes,” Brooks said. “Will there be complete chaos in the supply chain? No.”

WTDC partnered with a cargo company and installed a $275,000 screening machine in January. They obtained the equipment and TSA certification to ensure that their shipments would not be held up after 1 August. They also offer screening services to other companies.

Under the law, airlines are ultimately responsible for screening. But air carriers point out they do not have the space at airports to store large volumes of unscreened cargo.

To avoid bottlenecks, the TSA developed the Certified Cargo Screening Program, which allows freight forwarders and others in the supply chain — like WTDC — to obtain certification and screen cargo before it arrives at the airport.

Pre-screened cargo will enter MIA through one gate and be moved directly to the airline. Just over 50 companies located near MIA have obtained TSA certification to screen cargo before it arrives at the airport.

Mann writes that trucks carrying unscreened air freight must wait in line until the airline they plan to use can scan or inspect their cargo. If cargo does not pass, it must be loaded back on the truck and removed from the airport.

Also, if freight is not screened on time, planes will leave without it.

The screening mandate, included in the 9/11 Act signed into law in 2007, was drawn up by Congress to avoid a Lockerbie-style bombing in the United States. It required the TSA to begin implementing a staged program for screening air cargo placed on all passenger planes in the United States, whether flying to domestic or international destinations.

In 1988 a bomb in a cargo container of a PanAm 747 passenger jet flying from London to New York City exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 259 people aboard and 11 in the town of Lockerbie, where pieces of the aircraft fell.

The TSA, which says the 1 August deadline is firm, has been working since 2007 to educate manufacturers who rely on air freight, as well as shippers, freight forwarders and others in the air cargo industry on the screening requirements.

As part of the TSA’s staged implementation program, 50 percent of all cargo carried by passenger planes had to be screened by 3 January 2009 and 75 percent by 1 May 2010.

One-hundred percent screening for narrow-bodied, single-aisle passenger planes was implemented in October 2008. The TSA says that 95 percent of domestic flights are on narrow-bodied planes, such as the Boeing 737 or the Airbus A320.

Large gateway airports, like MIA, have international passenger flights in wide-bodied aircraft, like Boeing 777s and 747s, as well as Airbus A330s. These planes also haul large containers and pallets of air cargo.

“I’m not worried about small airports,” said Brandon Fried, executive director of the Airforwarders Association, a trade group based in Washington, D.C.“Where we really see [screening] as an issue is in New York, Chicago, Miami, gateway airports with wide-bodied passenger planes. The more prudent course is to have screening done outside the airport.”