The new DHL Freight terminal is situated close to the Stockholm airport Arlanda. There are around 60 professional drivers, 40 terminal workers and 10 clerks working there, handling some 9 000 dispatches every 24 hours within the terminal area of more than 10 000 square metres.

International security requirements
When a new DHL-terminal is built, or major refurbishments are made in an already existing terminal, several global corporate requirements are applied. For example, with reference to security, all terminals must have CCTV systems implemented. During the purchasing process, the DHL data base tool can be used, as it is loaded with important logistical information, such as the number of doors and the amount of cargo that will be managed through the terminal.
"The tool is used as a guide for our basis of evaluation. For example, it can advise us how many cameras are required and how the control-system should be created. It then makes an estimate of the costs, which are put into the budget and presented to and approved by a central security department, assuming the costs are considered to be reasonable," says Jan Collander, CPO and Country Security Manager at DHL Freight.

Effective security cameras
The internal and external security requirements at the DHL terminal are covered by around a hundred mega pixel Panasonic I-Pro cameras.
"It works very well. Not least because the system is easy to operate. We, ourselves, set the alarm areas, and we are able to zoom in to the pictures," says Pär Björkman, Senior Security Supervisor.
"Here in Rosersberg one hundred cameras do the same job equivalent to 150 cameras in one of our older terminals. The applications enable us to do anything, like masking off areas and marking a certain pallet and giving a video-alarm when it is moved," Jan Collander states.

Reliable recording
The fully automatic recording system is redundant, and records in parallel in two units simultaneously ensuring that all information is easily accessible and recoverable in the event a hard disk should fail or a unit break down. The recording runs continuously over 24 hours, and the video is stored for 30 days, thereafter it is automatically deleted. If something should happen a few specific employees are authorised to search through the recordings.
"Thanks to the user-friendliness, the sharpness and the resolution of the pictures in a modern camera system, searching through recorded video is a much faster and easier process than it used to be," says Jan Collander.

Prevents crime
The level of criminal incidents is very low within DHL terminals where modern systems have been installed, compared to terminals where there is no CCTV, or in terminals with older CCTV-systems. The most common crimes that are still being committed are where parts of cargo are being stolen, and minor thefts. A few times each year DHL is afflicted by major thefts, such as the whole freight load of single lorry. Usually these crimes are solved.
"Our terminals are not warehouses. The cargo is transhipped from one vehicle to another, which means that cargo never stays put with us," says Jan Collander.

Exhibits in trials
All crimes that are discovered are reported to the police. The system allows for DHL save pictures to a CD when the police or prosecutors require them as criminal evidence.
"The high resolution of the mega pixel-cameras enables us to identify cargo as well as the persons who have been in contact with it. Furthermore, as high quality pictures can be approved as exhibits they are valuable in trials," says Jan Collander who explains that when a recipient reports that something is missing from a pallet - which happens once in a while - the camera-system shows that the carton was plastic wrapped and not tampered with whilst being handled by DHL at the terminal.
- Maybe a mistake was made by the sender during the original despatch because things were done in a hurry, and so someone "claims" they only got two TV sets, but we can prove that there were three on the pallet when the driver loaded it on to the vehicle for distribution.
Sometimes cargo is damaged when it arrives here, and the video-frames show that. Also the opposite, that cargo was not damaged when someone claims it was," he says.
Cargo might be delivered to the wrong destination, e.g. if a client wrote the wrong postal-code, or if the tag came away because it wasn't properly attached. The camera system is valuable even in these matters. Another gain is that the cameras register things such as gates and doorways being knocked down by vehicles - they are expensive to repair.

Workplace-accidents are straightened out
Not least important is that workplace-accidents can be straightened out thanks to the constant recording. For example, when an employee was changing a battery on a truck, he handled it the wrong way and got battery acid into his eyes.
"He was so shocked he could only guess what had happened, while the cameras had registered the whole course of events. We managed to clear the man's eyesight, but after this incident we gathered together all the people responsible for purchasing vehicles, and changed the way that we handle this issue throughout all our terminals in Sweden," says Pär Björkman.
"We hear from our employees that they feel safe where modern camera-systems have been installed. Also, staff in the other terminals request the systems where they are not yet installed," he concludes.