Peninsula protection

To gain the best possible understanding of criminal activities and security risks to supply chains across the Europe, Middle East & Africa region, TAPA EMEA has a network of local working groups with a remit to boost the Association’s knowledge and intelligence sources in their countries or regions of operation. 

Vigilant spoke to one of the members of the latest group to join this network, Filipe Joel de Almeida,
Corporate Security & Loss Prevention Manager at Rangel Logistics Solutions, to learn more about their focus on the Iberian Peninsula… 

As the number one supply chain security Association in the EMEA region, TAPA has for a very long time led the development of Security Standards aimed at preventing cargo losses due to theft and increased the resilience of its members’ supply chains. 

Nevertheless, despite having a strong industrial and logistics infrastructure, the Iberian Peninsula has a very small footprint in terms of TAPA Standards’ certifications and the implementation of the Association’s international Standards and Best Practices, in part due to language and cultural barriers. To close this gap, and in line with the creation of regional working groups for other locations, in 2022, TAPA EMEA created the Iberian Peninsula Working Group.

Composed of dedicated and motivated volunteers from the industry, and with the full support of the TAPA EMEA management and administrative teams, this Working Group has now started to implement regular meetings to discuss the supply chain security needs of the Iberian Peninsula, identify actions that can support the general community, increase the awareness regarding the most critical topics, and start producing content to be shared through webinars and trainings.

The dedication and commitment from the members of the group is evident by the fact the members are not only based in Iberia, but also across other countries in Europe and even South America, all focused on contributing the most they can to the work being done, raising awareness about the security topics in the Iberian community and increasing the TAPA EMEA footprint.

One of the first actions of the Iberian Working Group is to start closing the language gap. Several members are now focusing on the translation of the existing training materials and general information into Spanish, and even reviewing the Standards’ translations into Portuguese, to ensure that the most important and accurate information is available in both these languages to make it easier for companies to focus on certifications for their facilities and trucking operations. 

On 15 September, another important step was the first TAPA EMEA Iberian Peninsula Webinar, presented in Spanish. With almost 100 people attending, this webinar successfully achieved the goal of increasing the regional community’s awareness of TAPA EMEA and its Security Standards, diving then deeper into the current security landscape in the peninsula by discussing major threats, analysis of the available statistical information, and providing an overview of the certification process, to help those participating understand this process. 

As a result of the positive feedback received from this first webinar, we’ve identified the need to increase the TAPA EMEA footprint at Logistics and Security events in the Iberian Peninsula, building on the success of the Association’s participation in SIL Barcelona in June 2022. Targeting the most relevant industry events will help to raise awareness of the importance of certification and mobilise the community to close the most critical security gaps.

Goods at rest are goods at risk and in Iberia that is an overwhelming truth! Despite the efforts and resources allocated over the last years to reinforce the security of facilities, Secure Parking Locations are nearly non-existent in Iberia. Trucks have to make stops, and without secure locations to use – without lengthening transit times and minimizing necessary detours – those stops are where goods face the maximum risk. This has been exploited by several criminal groups which specialise in stealing goods from vehicles at truck stops, rest areas, and unsecured parking locations.

The Iberian Peninsula Working Group is starting a ‘call-to-arms’ within the regional community, asking everyone that is interested in helping with this effort to join the group! Only with the involvement of all the relevant stakeholders, and with the contribution of all the relevant parties, will we be able to make a positive difference and develop the necessary momentum for this change to become effective! 

Let’s start gathering more information, let’s identify where transporters are feeling the need/absence of secure parking locations, and compile that information to share with other players that might be interested in developing secure parking locations in those areas, or to existing unsecured parking locations that might be interested in learning how they can increase their security measures and provide an added value service to their customers, and gain new business opportunities by being added to the TIS database of secure locations, etc.

Let’s also increase the reporting of cargo crime events to the TAPA EMEA Intelligence System (TIS).  This is already an amazing tool, but its effectiveness is proportionally indexed to the amount and quality of the incident information that in reported to it! Therefore, it’s imperative to collect more information regarding cargo thefts that happen in the Iberian Peninsula, not only to identify ‘hot areas’ of cargo crime (and support the community in avoiding them), but also gather relevant information regarding crime patterns, criminal modus operandi, and all the information that can contribute to us better identifying risks, implementing the appropriate preventive measures, and even contributing to improving the existing Security Standards where appropriate.

As is commonly said, TAPA Standards are developed ‘by the industry, for the industry’ and the work being done by the Iberian Peninsula Working Group is no different in that! So, if you have any interest in supply chain security in Iberia, and you consider you can contribute to the proactive work being developed to increase the TAPA EMEA footprint in this region, please contact us! The more inputs we have from the community, the better we’ll be able to direct our efforts – and the more people we have assisting in this mission, the better we’ll be able to support the entire community in protecting our goods and facilities!

To offer support to the TAPA EMEA Iberian Peninsula Working Group, please contact info@tapaemea.org