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What would you worry about if you were shipping a load of products you had made—let's say a load of toys—from one country to another?
Well, you might worry that the toys would get lost or get sent to the wrong port.
You might worry that bad weather at sea would delay your toys and make your customer upset.
Or, you might worry that someone would steal the toys out of the cargo container, sort of like a modern-day type of piracy.
As far as the first two worries, these were very serious concerns years ago. People who shipped goods between countries had to depend on sailing ships that took months to cross the ocean. There was no certainty that the goods loaded on a ship would make it to the right place on time… or ever. People just had to wait and hope.
But with today's modern ships and computerized technology, containers full of cargo are easy to track. And storms at sea can be predicted and evaded by ship captains armed with radar and early weather reports.
But, even with the shipping certainty that comes with this computerized age, you might still worry that something could happen to your container full of toys. What if someone breaks into it at the warehouse or at the container yard? Is that possible?
That's where Earl Agron comes in. As Director of Port & Container Security for APL, Earl is responsible for making sure that containers full of cargo shipped by APL customers remain safe and sound—and undisturbed—all the way to their destination. Earl works with other shipping companies and governments to develop standards for the 'seals' or locks that are placed on containers to keep the contents safe. And he makes sure that APL's container terminals at ports around the world are safe places for the millions of containers that pass through each year.
But Earl's job has gotten a lot more complicated. Because of the terrorism threats of the last several years and the recent war, he's got to make sure that APL's container terminals, its ships, and each and every cargo container it ships, are safe from terrorist threats as well as from pirates. He's got to make sure that people don't have the opportunity to use a peaceful trade ship or a cargo container full of toys or apples or computer parts to ship something dangerous.
That's a very difficult job, but Earl works hard with his colleagues all around the world to make sure that ocean shipping remains safe even in these difficult times. He wants to make sure that food and clothing and the other things we need every day can get from the people who make them to the people who use them even in wartime.
Earl has been working with the U.S. government, which recently adopted a new Maritime Security Transportation Act. This new law requires shipping companies such as APL to take many steps to keep ports and ships safe.
Earl also works with other shippers to make sure the seals on cargo containers are strong and unbreakable. He and his colleagues have been looking at new, high-tech electronic seals that would ensure that no one can open a cargo container except the person who is supposed to.
All of us depend every day on goods that have been shipped to our towns from other places. It's good to know that Earl Agron is working hard to keep those shipments safe.
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