Plans are afoot to introduce minimum standards for security relating to the road transport industry. It is intended that the new scheme will be similar to the system currently in place for airfreight.
In a flurry of abbreviations, the process to create the new ‘Road Haulage Industry Minimum Security Standards’ (RHIMSS) agreement started last October, with a meeting between the RHA and the Association of Chief Police Officers – Crime Prevention Initiatives (ACPO-CPI). As a result of the meeting, a draft version of the scheme will be released in the next month or so.
It is expected that there will be some significant differences between the schemes for air cargo and road haulage. Notable among them are; The current air freight system is free but RHIMSS will be a paid service, AIMSS audits are carried out by officers from the Metropolitan Police but RHIMSS checks on depots and warehouses will be carried out by trained RHA staff. In future RHIMSS will cover the whole country, as opposed to AIMSS which is restricted to the zone of Operation Grafton, a 10km radius around Heathrow airport.
