Screening every parcel slows air express

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Forcing cargo carriers to screen every package would cause the world's air express delivery system to grind to a halt, U.S. transportation experts say.

Those experts told the New York Times in interviews published Tuesday most shipments carried by air come from frequent customers with longstanding relationships.

They said it's the "one-off" packages from random customers that pose the greatest danger like the parcel bombs discovered Friday from Yemen.

"You can't stop the flow of time-sensitive air freight. It's simply not realistic," said Yossi Sheffi, the director of the Center for Transportation and Logistics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Robert Mann Jr., an aviation industry expert in Port Washington, N.Y., said there is no seamless set of standards that can apply globally.

Foreign carriers that bring cargo into the United States operate by their own set of rules that vary significantly from country to country.

"Screening all these packages is not as easy as screening passengers -- it's a much more difficult thing to do and do effectively," Edmund S. Greenslet, the publisher of The Airline Monitor, an industry trade publication, told the Times. "It's the weak link in the whole airline system."

The Obama administration is expected soon to announce measures to upgrade the screening of air cargo.

Administrator John S. Pistole of the Transportation Security Agency said significant steps already have been taken to strengthen the security of international air cargo.