South Korea’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF) plans to give an integrated pass to vehicles and drivers to access all 24 container terminals in the country.
This move aims to strengthen port security and to reduce the time visitors spend in being allowed to enter ports.
The MOF said through a press statement, “Previously, if a visitor wanted to enter ports, the person had to apply for access from the respective regional maritime affairs and fisheries offices. However, if a visitor wanted to enter ports being operated by port authorities, the person had to apply for access from each port authority.”
Certain ports, such as Gwangyang, Mokpo, Pohang, and Yeosu, are managed by regional maritime affairs and fisheries offices, while Busan, Incheon, and Ulsan ports for example, are managed by port authorities.
Given the inefficiencies caused by separate issuing systems, the MOF has created an integrated pass using a radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip and unified several websites that visitors previously used to apply for the passes.
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According to the MOF, if a visitor enters a container terminal with an RFID pass, the time spent in stopping at a gate and departing from there would decrease from 10 seconds to 3 seconds.
The MOF is issuing the integrated passes at the container terminals of Busan and Gwangyang ports as of 22 June. From November, this will be rolled out to all container terminals nationwide.
The MOF plans to open two local offices in Busan Port and one local office in Gwangyang Port for the next two months to issue the new passes smoothly.
Also, the ministry will hold a briefing session on changing and issuing the new passes for logistics companies.
The MOF concluded, “Thanks to the integrated pass to enter ports, we are expecting to make it more convenient for vehicles and drivers to access the ports and to strengthen the security at ports.”
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.
