100% sea container checks for transitional facilities

Why we've moved to 100% container checks

Full reporting of sea container movements by transitional facilities (TFs) started on 1 July 2021.

Prior to 1 July 2021, TFs only reported on contaminated containers, which amounted to some 2% to 10% of the traffic entering their grounds. Reporting on all containers will:

enhance the biosecurity system by improving sea container traceability
contribute to more effective import measures, border controls, and targeted post border surveillance activities
help assess TF performance
allow us to act quickly when things go wrong.

The container reporting system has been modified

We have modified the existing TF reporting system (the Container Checks portal) to allow additional reporting. This will be an interim solution until more substantial changes are made to our border information technology under the Quansuite replacement project over the next couple of years.

The information we will get from the interim reporting will increase our understanding of issues relating to unauthorised container movements, which is currently a biosecurity concern. It will also provide insights that will help us develop the final reporting tool.

Under the new reporting approach:

TFs will need to submit inspection results within 48 hours
officers will follow up any unauthorised container movements identified from the reporting.

We recognise that for empty container facilities handling high volumes of containers (10,000 or more a year), we need to take a different approach. We are working directly with these facilities to find a solution.

Container Checks

Some improvements to the system will take longer

The interim solution to enable 100% container check reporting is a "minimum viable product". It will solve some short-term issues around container reporting and assurance, but technology constraints won't allow us to do everything at once. A couple of things we can’t do right now, that we know are important are:

giving TF operators access to the Container Check portal
enabling business to business messaging to allow for seamless data transfer between TFs and MPI.

We expect further improvements will be made as we upgrade our border control computer systems during the next 18 to 24 months (by 2023).