Individual Partners

International Container Security Organisation (ICSO)

Description of entity:

ICSO is set up to be a neutral industry-owned non-profit organization that provides data exchange between security related tracking & tracing solutions and private (terminal operators, security companies, shipping lines, shippers, banks, insurance companies, etc.) and public actors (customs authorities, port authorities and other governmental agencies). ICSO is concerned with the integrity status and location of the loading unit and not with the content of the loading unit.
The ICSO CSTS (Cargo Status Tracking Server) platform communicates with platforms that service cargo status and tracking information. The ICSO CSTS platform acts as a clearing house of cargo status information and translates incoming proprietary messages into technology agnostic communication that is made available to the stakeholders of the supply chain. We will use the term 'cargo status' because the ICSO concept is not limited to containers. However, the focus is on integrity status and location of the loading unit and not with the content of the loading unit. That loading unit can be a container, a trailer, etc. So 'cargo status' does NOT refer to cargo content of the loading unit.

Special skills: The alignment of competing container security devices

The current problem is that multiple technologies are available by multiple vendors creating and ransmitting cargo status and tracking information via their own proprietary platforms and in proprietary data formats to users. This leads to inefficiencies when implementing secure trade lanes since both technical integration as well as acceptance by involved authorities has to take place on an individual basis.

The ICSO CSTS (Cargo Status Tracking Server) provides a neutral platform that will interface downstream to security systems of multiple technologies and vendors, as such providing upstream information on the position and intrusion status of cargo containers (and other loading units) according to standardized interfaces.
Besides the various existing technologies it can integrate (downstream), it can also integrate links to providers of information on individual loading units, e.g. BIC and TIR.

Weblink: www.icso.be