Trucking Security Expert Draws Viewers to First TTNews.com Live Chat Session
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(Michael James - Transport Topics) |
ATA now wants additional government funding for America's Trucking Army program, which is part of an anti-terrorism action plan Beatty is developing for ATA.
“We can train more than 3 million truck drivers in a very short period of time — one to two years — once the program is fully funded,” Beatty told the online audience.
Beatty, a former Army Delta Force officer and FBI special agent who runs his own security consulting firm, addressed trucking executives’ concerns on issues such as border security, cargo theft and anti-terror technology applications for motor carriers during the 90-minute chat session July 24.
More than 300 people logged onto the first-time interactive event for TTNews, with a queue of users ranging from 45 to 60 at any given time waiting to get in, according to Jenna Carroll, who organized and administered the technical aspects of the chat session.
Howard S, Abramson, publisher of Transport Topics Publishing Group and moderator of the event, called it “a smash hit. We had plenty of viewer participation, an important topic with an interesting guest, and more than enough security questions to fill the 90 minutes we had scheduled.”
Beatty’s firm, Total Security Services International, last week completed the study program for America’s Trucking Army that it will submit to ATA, Beatty associate Ray Brown, a retired Coast Guard captain, said in a separate interview.
That program teaches drivers to “be vigilant but not vigilantes,” Brown said. “We want to exploit their experience to be aware of unusual circumstances, rather than let them be law enforcement” themselves.
ATA eventually will have several information-sharing and analysis centers to receive Highway Watch reports, collate the information and pass it on to appropriate agencies, Brown said.
Once the program is running, those centers could also be set up to receive electronic data on truck movements and status, he added.
Several of the chat-session questions focused on how trucking companies, especially smaller ones, could afford the new security and communications technology that would allow their dispatchers to sufficiently monitor their trucks while on the road.
“As part of our Anti-Terrorism Action Plan, we are seeking government’s assistance to provide incentives for industry members to adopt technologies that are effective against terrorism,” Beatty responded.
Incentives could include tax incentives such as allowing companies to immediately expense investments in security-related systems rather than counting them as long-term capital expenses, or providing regulatory relief, said Marc Sands, vice president for Qualcomm Inc.’s Wireless Business Solutions division.
“It’s an up-front capital expenditure that makes it hard to make a decision on,” Sands said. He spoke with Transport Topics after sitting in on the on-line discussion. Qualcomm sponsored the chat session.
Despite all the precautions the trucking industry is taking, Beatty reminded executives “that trucks are only going to be sought after as weapons by terrorists that want or need to deliver thousands of pounds of explosives to one target. Car bombs are more prevalent and are used by terrorists to deliver hundreds of pounds of explosives to a target area. [And] it would be much more likely and easier for a terrorist to use a car to deliver a suitcase nuclear bomb than to use a truck.”
This story appeared in the July 29 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.
