Hapag-Lloyd started the roll-out of Secure Container Release in the Port of Rotterdam. This new way of working will be introduced for the container import release process. Providing a more secure and safe solution to all employees and clients involved by abandoning the traditional PIN codes used to release containers in the past.
Hapag-Lloyd AG is committed to improving its operations’ overall safety and security. The roll-out of Secure Container Release (SCR) fits its long-term vision to foster innovation and drive value through digitization.
Leveraging blockchain technology, Secure Container Release provides a more secure and digital alternative to the traditional PIN codes used today to release and pick up containers arriving in our ports. By doing so Hapag-Lloyd takes advantage of new technologies to create a more secure and safe port community, and takes responsibility for protecting its staff and clients from malicious interventions in the container release process.
In 2020, Hapag-Lloyd joined a pilot in the Port of Rotterdam, facilitated by T-Mining’s participation in the PortXL acceleration program, to validate Secure Container Release with a limited number of forwarders and transport companies. In November 2021, Hapag-Lloyd started the rollout of SCR in a phased approach. Clients will be contacted individually in the following weeks and will receive an invitation to onboard on the new solution. Hapag-Lloyd aims to complete the onboarding to SCR of its clients in Rotterdam by the end of 2021.
Tom Demolder, Managing Director at Hapag-Lloyd Benelux: “We are excited to introduce cutting edge technologies that help us to improve the safety of our workforce and the security of our release process. Both are essential to our business and operations. At the same time, working together with innovative start-ups like T-Mining, makes our organization more agile and resilient.”
Nico Wauters, CEO at T-Mining: “From day one, Hapag-Lloyd has been a firm believer and supporter of Secure Container Release in Rotterdam. Today is an important milestone for T-Mining in scaling our footprint, from the Port of Antwerp to the Port of Rotterdam, providing evidence of our value proposition, the scalability of our solution and the execution power of our team.”
T-Mining increases security in the Port of Rotterdam with Portbase
Increasing (cyber) crime means that security in the Port of Rotterdam is high on everyone’s agenda. Especially when it comes to sharing data. The call for safe working in the port, with reliable parties and data, was the reason for Portbase to develop a special program together with the port community: ‘Safe data sharing’. Peter de Graaf, managing director of Portbase, explains: ‘This program focuses on a chain-wide approach, with concrete solutions to make the information exchange between the various links in the container logistics chain safer.’
The ‘Secure data sharing’ program has three principles: secure identities, secure processes and a secure platform. In short, this concerns, for example, the implementation of multi-factor authentication (MFA) and working with permissions. But it also concerns, for example, a more layered security of the PCS.
A current practical example shows what the ‘Safe data sharing’ program can deliver. Until now, a container in the port of Rotterdam has been released using a pin code, a ‘key’. By joining the ‘Safe data sharing’ program, only authorized companies and their employees within the Portbase services can perform the necessary digital actions and obtain information in relation to the container release process.
Portbase achieves this by developing applications for the port business community with which closed chains can be realized. Only parties that are authorized are given access to such a closed chain. An account and the correct ‘key’ are therefore no longer sufficient, because an extra layer of security has been applied with the application of permissions.
In addition, Portbase makes the PCS suitable for third-party solutions that add an extra layer of security. For example, shipping companies can choose to encrypt PIN codes digitally. Hapag Lloyd is the first large shipping company in the Port of Rotterdam that will use this extra guarantee via the Belgian tech company T-Mining, linked to the PCS of Portbase.
The aim is to further roll out and then optimize the concept of the extra-secure container release in the short term, in close consultation with the port community. De Graaf: ‘This will contribute to the realization of a safe Port of Rotterdam, because the PIN code that is sensitive to theft will become irrelevant in the port logistics process.’
