In a pilot begun January of 1998, nearly 700 Illinois truck drivers at 75 trucking companies voluntarily enrolled in a program to gain access with the touch of a finger to 24 cargo sites involving 22 airlines at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. The fingerscan-based systems will ultimately verify the identity of over 50,000 workers at O’Hare and Midway Airports.
“About 60 percent of all of our air cargo shipments at O’Hare occur on passenger planes,” explains Chicago Aviation Commissioner Mary rose Loney. “The very fact that we are co-mingling passengers with large volumes of freight activity really places the challenge upon us to ensure that we are balancing the security needs of both.” Until the new system was used, truckers delivering cargo shipments were required to provide nothing more than a photocopied driver’s license and a written manifest describing the freight.
In another application of the fingerscan system, 300 employees are presently gaining access to empty airplanes parked at gates, in-flight food containers, and other areas that require security clearances. Previously they used a swipe card and a PIN.
For more information about Identix’s fingerscan systems, contact Identix at 510 North Pastoria Avenue, Sunnyvale, California, 94086, call 408/731-2000, fax 408/739-3308, or visit the Web site at www.identix.com.
