The sea ports will be required by their country of operation to comply with the "Safe Port Act" or become obsolete.  Ports are also being recognized worldwide as a vulnerable area that must be protected against not only terrorism but also contraband and drugs.  The Ports operate as a load and offload "parking slip".  The ports operate on a small margin and must have efficient turnaround to insure profitability.  These challenges enhance the difficulty of implementation.  It is comparative to requesting FedEx or UPS to provide imagery of each package within their delivery system.  It is possible but not practical.  Their business model and mission are not compatible with such a request.

Port Scanning Services, Inc provides a separation and elimination of conflict interest issues.  This is achieved by having a third party responsible for the compliance requirements.  There is a certain liability to scanning 100% of the containers moving through a port.  The port is responsible for loading and offloading of the containers as well as storage of containers awaiting shipment.  PSS's CEO uses a very simple but effective analogy to exemplify this conflict….. If you are an auditor, you operate an auditing business responsible and trusted to audit financials of many companies.  You have the ability to audit any financials presented to you but you do not audit your own business financials.  It would not be a conflict of interest…..  This shows how if a port is responsible to move, store and ship containers it would not want the regulatory responsibility of scanning and reporting.  It can be one disgruntle employee within the port, tasked to be the scanning agent for the day that destroys not only the reputation of the port but possibly the port itself.  PSS relieves the port of this liability.   

PSS provides the scanned results to the appropriate governmental agencies requiring the information.  These currently include Homeland Security, Drug Enforcement Agency, Customs & Border Protection, Internal Revenue Service and Immigration & Naturalization Service for containers shipped to the U.S.  This allows the port of origin to execute its business plan while alleviating compliance issues with the many different receiving port countries.  The information will be disclosed to all required entities and/or government agencies within the destination country as regulations are implemented throughout the world.  There are a number Local, Regional, and Federal agencies within each country of origin requiring dissemination of the same information.  PSS will assure compliance with all laws governing all countries of destination and origin on a per container basis.

Seaport container volume is not linear.  This inconsistency in the volume can be generated by seasons, harvest, number of slips and weather.  For example: the container volume from Ecuador will peak during harvest season due to the tremendous export of agricultural goods to the U.S.  The scanning capabilities of the port must accommodate this period.  This situation and the need for redundancy (backup scanning units) require the Seaport to have more than one scanning station per port or terminals.  This could double the required investment in equipment and operations staff.

The equipment can be configured as needed to accommodate multiple situations; fix, gantry, and mobile.  The technology used is X-Ray and Gamma Ray which evolved from luggage scanning equipment utilized at airports.  The equipment has been upsized to enable the scanning of entire vehicles and/or containers.  The imagery scanning allows manifest comparison and anomaly identification.  The equipment is modified to add optional radiation detection and organic matter identification.  There are numerous developers of this technology.  RapidScan, SAIC, L3 Communications, Smith Detections and Nuctech are the leaders in the industry.  Their equipment is specifically designed for large vehicle or container scanning.  The initial investment for one hundred twenty (120) scans per hour is up to US $9 Million.