From left to right Director Operations Jasper Hooykaas, Safety Manager Angela Schalken and supervisor Joop Wijnbeek.
ECT regularly carries out inspections aboard visiting ships.
additional passengers. “Our 2000 own employees however are our best safety measure. They are requested to report any unusual situation or activity inside or outside our gates so that the security guards can immediately investigate.” Obviously, the Director Operations realises that some ECT employees may be tempted as well. A proactive policy is in place to prevent this. “We require a government-issued certificate of good conduct of all new employees. Moreover, we also recently made this certificate a prerequisite for all employees who perform critical tasks, no matter how long they have already been working at ECT.” ECT furthermore realises that personal problems – such as debts – can make employees vulnerable to outside influences. In these situations, the company actively mediates to help solve such problems.
Living up to Quality Certifications Thanks to its strong and comprehensive focus on security, ECT of course also meets the stringent requirements set by Customs to qualify as Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) as well as its US counterpart C-TPAT. The same applies to the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS),
an initiative of the International Maritime Organisation. Hooykaas: “All these quality certifications come with strict audits, which we successfully pass each time.” What’s more, ECT itself is also very pro-active in preventing any security flaws with all kind of tests. “For example, we will sometimes allow a fictitious company to come onto the terminal and mask as heating technicians; we then test everyone’s alertness when this party next wants to carry out ‘unusual’ activities.”
No CargoCard, No Access Every truck driver who visits an ECT terminal needs to identify himself by means of a CargoCard which contains the unique biometric characteristics of the driver. By presenting the CargoCard at the gate to the terminal and verifying his biometric data, ECT knows with a bsolute certainty that the driver is who he claims to be. Until recently, drivers who did not have a CargoCard were able to purchase a day pass at a fee. To avoid m isunderstandings, ECT however no longer makes any exceptions: since March 2015, no CargoCard means no access.
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