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SECURITY ESCORTS


RIGHT BEHIND YOU


Cargo crime is a multi-billion-euro industry, and, like all big business, it attracts more than its fair share of skilled professionals, on both sides of the fence.


I got into supply chain security almost by chance in 1999. I was working for the largest Dutch brewer and a good friend of mine owned two computer shops. He was always tinkering with electronics, in particular GPS track & trace systems, and busy with his other great interest, Close Protection (CP) Security. It was during a CP training in Latvia that one of the other participants asked him if he knew someone who could provide security for trucks carrying theft-sensitive cargoes.


Security for trucks? Was that a viable business? At the time, it seemed incredulous to an outsider like me. Three months later, my friend was contacted again by the person he had met on his training course. He was keen to


know if we’d found a security supplier and recounted their latest loss; four pallets of computer consumables stolen from a truck in the Netherlands.


We soon began to recognise the business opportunity in front of us. My own military service with the Dutch army involved the security of weapons and munitions transportation and stationed at the Valkenburg air base near The Hague, my daily work involved writing instructions and procedures, performing audits and instructing army staff involved in these transports.


To cut a long story short, AGS, the forerunner to our current day company, was formed and flourished. In 2007, when the global financial crisis kicked in, we countered the reduction in our truck security escorting services by launching our own certified alarm intervention centre to focus more on so-called ‘electronic escorts’ and, in 2013, sold AGS to Brinks Global Services. Two years later, after Brinks decided


‘In the past five years or so, we’ve seen a shift from only very valuable cargoes requiring escorting to now include a wide variety of other cargoes with far lower unit cost values... a reflection of the successful security measures taken by transporters of very valuable products, which has forced criminals to shift their focus to other types of goods.’


to step back from the escorting side of the business, we took the decision to relaunch this business line and The Cargo Security.Company was born. Today, we have support centres in 34 countries and provide more than 100 physical escorts a day for high-value cargo loads as well as monitoring a further 500 trucks with valuable shipments.


With over 90% of all recorded cargo crimes in the EMEA region now involving attacks on trucks, it’s clear that there is rarely a one-size-fits-all solution to guarantee a secure transportation. Risk-based analysis clearly shows us that for all the advancements in technology and the tremendous impact it has had on supply chain security, the presence of a physical security escort will always provide the greatest peace of mind and fastest speed of response for some shippers.


Traditionally, when we think of the need for a physical escort, we associate it with shipments of hi-tech products, pharma or tobacco shipments, or banknotes and other high-value documentation. Whilst this is true, in the past five years or so, we’ve seen a shift from only very valuable cargoes requiring escorting to now include a wide variety of other cargoes with far lower unit cost values. This may, indeed, be a reflection of the successful security measures taken by transporters of very valuable products, which has forced criminals to shift their focus to other types of goods.


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