U-Freight gains air cargo screening accreditation for its Hong Kong warehouse

Sep 16, 2019: The U-Freight Group (UFL), freight forwarding and logistics company, has gained air cargo screening accreditation for one of its logistics hubs in Hong Kong.

According to the Hong Kong-based company, it becomes ‘one of the first freight forwarders’ to be certified as a Regulated Air Cargo Screening Facility (RACSF) by the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department (CAD).

CAD launched its RACSF scheme for off-airport locations in October 2018 to facilitate the establishment and operation of cargo screening at off-airport sites.

This will help the industry meet ICAO’s policy of implementing security checks for all airfreight shipments by June 30, 2021.

These locations will ease pressure to screen airfreight at Hong Kong International Airport’s busy cargo terminals as volumes there continue to grow in the coming years.

The company installed its first X-ray machine at its Golden Bear Industrial Centre in Hong Kong, over two years ago, in order to give its staff adequate time to gain experience in the scanning process.

The machine was helped the staff to identify prohibited/suspect products inside the ever-increasing number of e-commerce parcels it handles.

A second enhanced X-ray machine was installed in July 2019, which can scan consignments up to pallet size. The company modified its export operations warehouse to accommodate the existing X-ray machine, as well as the newly purchased one.

Simon Wong, UFL’s chief executive officer said: “The U-Freight Group fully supports the ICAO aviation security requirements and has worked closely with CAD, Hong Kong Airport Authority, Cargo Terminal Operator and HAFFA in making the necessary preparations to make sure that we enhance our air cargo security regime to meet the new international aviation security requirements.

The RACSF programme, which was developed after trade consultations, covers criteria such as equipment, training and supervision of screening personnel and site security, as well as post-screening handling and transportation of shipments.

Wong adds: “As part of the application, we wrote a comprehensive set of working procedures for how we would operate as a RACSF, nominated two staff as accountable screening personnel within our RACSF, and also enrolled our staff on the relevant X-ray screening training courses.”