Security Seals - Protecting the Innocent

ItÂ’s almost the season to be jolly but before then we have to get through the season to beware. As we lead-up to the festive season there is more valuable merchandise in transit, needing protection than there has been during the rest of the year.

Security seals protect valuables in transit only as part of a properly managed system. 97.5% of employees are honest people and the security system is as much to protect them and their integrity as the goods that may go missing.

There is nothing quite as corrosive as suspicion in the workplace and often these issues are caused by a weak security system. The security manager of a small retail chain in Norfolk once told me his distribution drivers were keen to have a reliable security system introduced on their vehicles. The system they had was so weak that theft or more likely mistakes in the office or by the warehouse leading to short deliveries were often unofficially attributed to dishonest drivers; this lead to poor morale and an atmosphere of mistrust within the business.

A security seal without a robust process to manage it is about as useful as a guard dog with laryngitis. Before choosing a seal the system needs to be created in which it can be used to best effect.
Firstly, how to manage your security sealing system:

Seals held under lock and key and issued as freely as you would issue cash.

A serial number system written down or a bar code system providing automatic data capture avoiding transcription or transposition errors.

Seals applied by a member of the security team or supervisor at the point of loading, and serial number recorded on the manifest together with time of departure.

Supervised seal removal at point of delivery and the correlation of seal number and manifest. This is easy to manage in a closed distribution loop, more challenging when deliveries are made to third parties who need to be encouraged to play their part in to the system.

The management by exception of non-conformances such as short deliveries or unaccounted losses with a robust investigation process linking the loading team, driver, delivery points, timings and seal numbers. This requires a management system that brings together all the data, allowing patterns to be detected.
Once a suitable system is in place then a security seal can be chosen:

Tamper evident single use seals: low security, vehicle should not be left unattended, easily hand removable. Seals need to be managed and issued either with serial numbers in sequence or random. Most suitable for short delivery journeys where there are no breaks for the driver outside controlled areas.

Tamper evident barrier seals: high security - prevents opportunistic attack, the vehicle can be left unattended or parked overnight. Bolt or cable cutters for removal, seals need secure management to avoid them getting into the wrong hands.
====================
To continue reading please visit http://www.unisto.co.uk/News/2013/11/Security-Seals-Protecting-the-Innocent