The Port of Rotterdam Authority is one of the initiators of the Secure Chain. “Through this initiative, we are making the port more secure and therefore more attractive,” says Matthijs van Doorn. According to the Vice President Commercial, the collaboration between parties in the logistics chain is yielding tangible results. “One should not want to compete on security.”
In the Secure Chain, public and private parties closely work together to boost the resilience of port logistics. One of the participants is the Port of Rotterdam Authority. Together with other parties such as the Port Implementation Programme (Uitvoeringsagenda Haven), it is also a major financer of the establishment of the comprehensive change programme. The most prominent aspect of the Secure Chain is the more secure and reliable release of deepsea import containers by shipping lines. The use of PIN codes, which are susceptible to fraud, will stop. Only an inland operator that has been authorised via the Secure Chain can collect a container at the terminal. The process of connecting parties to this new digital way of working is in full swing. Van Doorn recently spoke to several enthusiastic shipping lines. “They are fully aware of the fact that if they had all needed to take action individually, additional efforts would have been required from each of them. In addition to the major advantage of having a uniform, secure port process, the coordinating role of the Secure Chain offers so much added value. Its strength lies in the central coordination. Without this kind of community management, none of what is being realised right now could have been achieved.”
Broad commitment required
The Vice President Commercial emphasises the broader scope of the Secure Chain. “It involves the entire port logistics sector. Commitment is needed from all parties, both public and private. Not only from the shipping lines, but also from the shippers, forwarders, inland operators and terminals.” This commitment has been anchored through the participation of their industry organisations, also for other aspects of the change programme such as the verification of the operating carrier at the terminal gate. Van Doorn expects that it is only a matter of time before the Secure Chain is expanded beyond deepsea to other segments of the container industry. After all, feeder shipping lines, shortsea shipping lines, ferry operators, depots and inland terminals have an equally strong focus on the security of people and processes.
Start of system change
The main priority right now is the continued connection of deepsea parties. For container cargo from Latin America and North America, the Secure Chain is in full effect. The rollout to other shipping areas still constitutes a major challenge for the coming period though. The next phase entails the connection of companies with import containers from Africa, the Middle East, India and Pakistan by the 1st of October 2024 at the latest. To participate in the Secure Chain, companies register for one of the services available for this purpose in the Port Community System of Portbase. More than 1,200 companies have already done this in the first half of 2024 and conservative estimates suggest some 3,500 participants will follow suit. Van Doorn: “I understand the pressure this puts on the Portbase organisation and the logistics sector. At the same time, I am extremely pleased with our accomplishments regarding the Secure Chain until now. The planning was ambitious, but our achievements so far are being noticed in the market and communicated. The main point is that together, we are actually making the logistics chain more secure. A real system change has been set in motion via the Secure Chain. By investing in this, we as the Port of Rotterdam Authority are emphatically fulfilling our role as an incubator. This benefits both the port in general and the entire business community.”
Next level
“I hope that eventually, we will find ourselves in a situation where other European ports start approaching us to also implement the Secure Chain,” Van Doorn indulges himself. “This would signify that we are truly in the vanguard when it comes to making the logistics chain more secure. That would be the next level, but first we need to complete the process in Rotterdam. That is our number 1 priority.”
