Planning, the use of technology, and protocols are the main actions for safety in cargo movement, agreed specialists in the logistics sector.
According to Leonardo Gómez, executive president of the National Association of Private Transportation (ANTP) , 10 states in the country account for 93% of highway robberies ; 50% are concentrated in three of them.
“I believe we can focus on and address this situation with very good practices,” Gómez noted, during the panel “ Safe Routes: Overview of Good Practices ,” as part of the first day of activities at The Logistics World Summit & Expo .
In that regard, Eva María Muñoz, president of the Mexican Association of Freight Forwarders (Amacarga) , highlighted the importance of route planning , especially in urban areas, where, among other events, demonstrations could occur.
He emphasized the use of technologies that allow for vehicle monitoring, as well as having contingency protocols in place to act quickly, “since it can take us longer, not so much because of theft, but because of demonstrations, which put the driver and the goods at risk. When we have the last mile in urban areas, that’s when we encounter many complications.”
He considered it important to conduct a more in-depth investigation of service providers , how many robberies they have, what their normal handling statistics are, “so that we can have a certain level of security and deliver a better result.”
Muñoz said that, given the current risks, these types of actions must be carried out every day, as well as having information on the routes and times with the highest risk in order to avoid the area.
For his part, Luis Hernández, president of the Mexican Association of Intermodal Transportation (AMTI) , reiterated the use of technology, such as seals with GPS notifications, which allows them to know if there was a door opening, weight changes, among other aspects.
“Actually, the impact on rail traffic from point A to point B isn’t as significant as it can be in the final few miles. We’re working with the associations to see how we can collaborate by sharing the information we generate with our partners,” he emphasized.
He added that the control towers have been working through the logistics integrator, as they help to verify every point of the operation.
“It has grown a lot and has been very positive for the movement of our cargo. I reiterate, much of it has been in the first and last miles, which is where the scale of the operation is somewhat diminished by having to move only one or two containers per day, per hour, on a daily basis. In addition to that, the satellite monitoring seals have been very useful for us in generating statistics and developing a security strategy,” he explained.
Luis Villatoro, president of the National Association of Vehicle Tracking and Protection Companies (ANERPV) , mentioned that, in addition to prevention and technology, data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), video telematics, GPS, and protocols such as training and professionalization of the human factor are necessary.
“If that human factor interacts correctly from the point of view of prevention, plus the support that artificial intelligence and technology can give you, of course, to track and trace the units, the response times to an incident, whatever it may be, a robbery or an accident, that may put the movement of that unit or the logistical operation at risk, consequently, it is the human factor that reacts based on criteria or standards,” he explained.
He explained that one of the standards is data analysis , as well as identifying the points where crimes are concentrated.
He considered it important to have a control tower, whose capacity can absorb information such as the closure of a road, an accident, such as the burning of vehicles, resulting from a criminal group or the arrest of a criminal leader.
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