Project Summary
The Secure Border-Ready Freight project proposed by SYSELEK will address the impending problem of high volumes of unitised freight traffic between customs clearance sites and major UK ports.
Project Achievements
- Conducted a review of existing container security locks, digital lock designs, app development tools, cloud database architectures and security approaches, and HMRC’s databases and APIs.
- Produced detailed use cases and system requirements, a detailed design for the intended digital lock, a representative prototype of the mobile device app, and an architecture design for the distributed cloud-based database, with a mock up to support the app prototype, along with extensive engineering documentation.
- Challenge found in the dependent link to HMRC’s GVMS database; this will be under development until the end of 2021/end of staged customs controls.
- Secured agreements with development partners: a lock manufacturer, a customs declaration software tool developer, and a blockchain security consultancy.
Next Steps
- Imperial College Business School supported in outlining a plan for future commercialisation, along with an investment forecast to reach full product launch in market in 2022.
- Conduct a field pilot trial involving potential road haulage customers, raising the TRL from 4 to 7.
- Explore funding opportunities from Innovate UK, partners for lock manufacturing, customs declaration software, and blockchain security.
