Cargo theft is a year-round problem, which is expected to rise in these Covid-19 stricken times. The world already suffers a loss of $5.9 million in cargo theft with an average value of $128,416 per theft in 2020 as per “Cargo Theft Trends and Security Tips from CargoNet”.
To secure your goods while in transit or storage, plastic security seals have typically been preferred across industries to seal and secure cargo and to provide visual evidence in case of any kind of tampering attempt. Plastic security seal providers have brought high-quality security seals to market, which are difficult to tamper without signs of tampering. These seals have also been customized to fit the given use case for the best results.
However, it has become common knowledge about the growth of counterfeiters and how culprits have managed to find new ways to fool others and succeed in their attempts. To tackle this very problem digitization of security seals has started to gain popularity.
What are Phygital Seals?
On one end of the spectrum, you have the traditional physical security seals and on the other end are cutting edge digital solutions. Phygital combines the best of both worlds and gives you a product, which provides the advantages of physical tamper-evident seals and added digital security and reliability around the product. This is done by using technology such as Radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip, Near-field communication (NFC) chip, or printing smart digital IDs on products that can communicate with other devices and send information to the cloud to be accessed remotely.
When we talk about physical seals, it means that the available physical seal is embedded with either RFID, NFC, or digital Ids such as QR codes to give them a unique identity that cannot be replicated. As these products can be scanned, it quickly alerts the user on the tamper status, if the seal is still attached to the allotted product and creates a documented trail, which can identify the period in which the tampering occurred and also provide accountability and transparency.
Let’s look at examples of such phygital seal’s
Pull Tight Seal –
Pull tight seals commonly known as strap seals are polypropylene seals, which generally come with a flag and tapering tail. The tail is inserted into the eyelet provided in the flag, around the product to be sealed. This one time use seal is fairly easy to apply and needs no additional tool and usually cannot be broken without leaving damage marks.
However, this plastic security seal can be replaced with an identical-looking seal by the thieves which are available for purchase on any e-commerce portal. Pull tight seals are primarily used in industries such as courier services, E-commerce, and logistics to seal mother bags, gunny bags, mail bags, cash bags, parcels, and postal services where it is essential for the product to be reliable.
Phygital advancements in strap seals have added an RFID chip to the tamper evident seal. This chip not only provides the seal with a unique digital identity but also improves the efficiency of operations. Industries demanding high speed of logistics can attach this seal to the product or bag and install RFID readers at checkpoints to speed up operations. A manual check is eliminated in this process once the products pass through the scanner, all the products are accounted for in the system and the user can know if any product was missing. More importantly, the seal cannot be replaced with any identical-looking seal from the open market since the RFID chip has a unique encrypted number that cannot be replicated. So, if the seal is replaced during transit when it is scanned at the destination, it will show as ‘unrecognized’ despite being intact.
Roto Seal –
Roto seal is also known as the twist seal or meter seal due to its popular use in all kinds of meters. The Roto seal is also used to secure gas valves, oil tankers and chemical drums. This tamper evident seal is made of high-grade polycarbonate and a multi-lock feature for added security. Once sealed, the locking mechanism is completely encased, meaning tampering is extremely difficult.
However, even after the best steps to make the seal tamper evident and customized with unique laser engraving, utility theft has been rising with fake seals that are purchased in the open market, bribes to authorities who inspect the area, or claims which state the meters were never sealed.
The phygital solution to the Roto seal is made by simply adding a scannable QR code to the seal with an app that connects the meter to the utility provider’s database. This technology now allows the Roto seal or Twist Seal to be assigned or linked to a particular meter. The inspectors from the utility providers need to scan and update data on the system along with images of the sealed meter, replaced seal and any signs of tampering are caught now when the photo of the seal is uploaded at the time of meter reading. This can easily let utility companies charge fines to tampered meters, regulate their field employees, and eliminate counterfeiting of the traditional meter seals.
Bolt Seal –
The most popular seal responsible for the safety and security of a majority of cargo inside containers is bolt seals or bottle seals. Tamper evident seals such as bolt seals are strong, one time use metal seals. However, there have been many instances where replacing the seal or fixing the seal back with glue to make it appear like the seal is in place or even attaching the seal post theft and not sealing it in the facility have been reported. These containers have insurance but no solid proof for claiming the insurance. If the victim does manage to claim the insurance money once, the subsequent premiums for all their shipments increases.
Countries like Taiwan and India have looked into this problem and have mandated the use of RFID E seals, which are phygital solutions for the bolt seal. It has led to significant benefits to improve the efficiency of the entire terminal cargo handling operations. Moreover, it allows better tracking and tracing of the containers both at the terminal and the supply chain level.
This high security passive one-time use RFID E seal as the name suggests is embedded with an RFID chip which is scanned by the help of an RFID scanner to check the TID number of the seal against the registered container linked with the TID number.
The RFID Eseal is also ISO 17712-2015 certified along with CTPAT certification and can withstand harsh weather conditions and high pressure. The only way to unlock it would be to cut it with a metal cutter. This would mean that the seal will no longer be read since the electronic circuit inside is now cut and it will display a ‘tampered’ status upon scanning.
Sepio Products Private Limited is amongst the few vendors who are impaneled with the Government of India to supply patented RFID E seals. They provide software along with the E seal, which customers use to speed up their transit process by uploading shipping documents and easy sharing of data with stakeholders across the value chain. All the shipping information can be tracked easily through this software and it can be customized to add the weight of the cargo, pictures of the sealed container, which also acts as a proof for insurance claims.
Sepio has taken innovative steps into developing phygital security seals and can further impart an understanding of the use and installation of these products with your current business model. You can connect with them at sales@sepioproducts.com and take the first step in securing your cargo phygitally.