CBP to Conduct Pilot for New X-Ray Technology at Port of Donna, Texas
ATLANTA -- CBP will soon roll out a pilot at the Port of Donna, Texas, to test bifurcated low-energy/high-energy truck X-ray technology expected to shorten primary inspections to seven seconds, said Robert Watt, director of the Non-Intrusive Inspection Division in CBP’s Office of Field Operations, on Dec. 6, during the CBP East Coast Trade Symposium. The current primary inspection process requires CBP officers to judge drivers’ behavior and documentation, then decide whether the driver should get out of the truck to allow an X-ray. But the updated process will allow drivers to stay in their trucks through the scanning system, which will use low-energy X-rays to scan cabs and high-energy X-rays to scan the truck container, Watt said.
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With the new system, trucks will go through a radio frequency identification device (RFID) system, which will send automated manifest and truck information to a command center, before the truck drives through X-rays and an under vehicle inspection system (UVIS), which will take thousands of pictures of trucks’ undercarriages, and “stitch them all together,” Watt said. From there, “things will branch out, and there will be a series of gate arms,” he said. The driver will “look to his left, they’ll get a photo taken of him that’ll match or not match the information that we have on the manifest of that driver. If it matches, and there’s no anomaly, the gate comes up, then the sign will say, ‘Go to exit gate.’ If there is an anomaly, the sign will say, ‘Go into secondary’” inspection.
Watt didn’t announce a specific time frame for the pilot, but noted that initial stages could see about 50 to 200 trucks scanned a day. “We can work out any problems, any issues, get it down to a science after a couple months, and then start seeing the possibility of moving that to other locations,” he said. CBP is also considering such technology for seaports, Watt said.