TAPA launches ‘best-ever’ security standards to tackle growth in global cargo thefts

The Transported Asset Protection Association (TAPA) has launched the most comprehensive industry security standards in its 23-year history to help protect freight facilities and trucking operations from the escalating threat of cargo crime, which now costs supply chains losses of millions of dollars per month.

The 2020 revisions of the Association’s Facility Security Requirements (FSR) and Trucking Security Requirements (TSR) – which take effect on 1 July 2020 and are valid for three years - aim to give TAPA’s Manufacturer and Logistics Service Provider members minimum standards to protect theft targeted goods. The global security requirements have been revised in consultation with TAPA’s international members to address new and emerging threats – such as the significant growth in attacks on Last Mile deliveries. As well as providing the most resilient and wide-ranging industry standards for supply chain security, the new FSR and TSR also provide improved cost efficiencies for users. 

As before, the new TAPA Standards will also support users’ compliance with other regulatory standards, such as C-TPAT, AEO and PIP, as some customs and border authorities recognize the TAPA requirements as complementing, or being compliant with, their own security programs. 

For the first time, TAPA’s FSR includes an Independent Audit Body (IAB) multi-site certification option. This is designed to identify and promote operational efficiencies between sites so best practices can be shared and to support a ‘team’ approach to obtaining and maintaining compliance with the TAPA Standard for security control and risk mitigation. Taking the multi-site approach to FSR certification will also help to lower costs for companies adopting the Standard across their networks. New certifications will be permitted to list multiple sites under one parent certification. This is in addition to the existing IAB single site certification and self-certification choices, which are now achieving the highest number of certifications in TAPA’s history.

As well as the TAPA FSR 2020 Standard, the Association has also produced a new Framework document to assist users and auditors in their understanding of the different certification methods that are available. 

Similarly, the Association has listened closely to its members’ truck security needs. The updated TSR Standard has been revised to enable four different types of transport vehicles - vans, hard-sided trailer, soft-sided trailer and ocean container by road – to be certified to suit the operational needs of Logistics Service Providers (LSP) and their customers. TAPA has also introduced optional additions for operators covering monitoring, rail transfer/tracking, locking, information security, and security escorts.

TAPA will continue to deliver global FSR and TSR training to support its members’ certifications programs.

Paul Linders, Chair of TAPA’s Worldwide Change Control Board, said: “We are seeing record growth in the number of TAPA Security Standards certifications all over the world. This is not only due to the efficiencies in using an industry standardized solution for security measures, but also the need to address the increasing threat of cargo theft and the severe implications this has for victims. Globally, we are recording intelligence on thousands of cargo loss incidents in our incident database each year.

“Supply chains are often seen as an easy target by both organized crime groups and opportunist criminals. The success of our Security Standards in reducing cargo losses is down to one very important fact; they have been created by the industry, for the industry and are delivered by TAPA, the world’s leading Security Expert Network for everyone in the supply chain. Our sole aim is to increase the resilience of supply chains both for our members and the industry-at-large. We are confident that TAPA’s  2020 FSR and TSR Standards are the best security requirements we have ever created as well as our most practical, flexible and cost-efficient standards to date. We expect this to lead to an acceleration in the number of TAPA certifications globally over the next three years.”