Earning your Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) certification is no small feat. It’s a complex process that requires a great deal of time and resources. Once you’re certified, it opens the door to more business opportunities and streamlines U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) processes like entry inspections.
After going through the effort of obtaining your certification and participating in the benefits it brings, the last thing you want is to get suspended for not properly training your employees and business partners.
Fortunately, a comprehensive CTPAT training program can help ensure you consistently meet CBP requirements. Today, we’re covering what CTPAT training looks like and how Veroot helps companies maintain compliance with ease.
Why Do You Need CTPAT Training?
In June 2020, the CBP released changes to the Minimum Security Requirements (MSC) for the CTPAT program, outlining how shippers must provide evidence of their trade compliance. In particular, Section 12 in the MSC covers how security awareness training must be conducted and documented.
CTPAT security awareness training is vital because it helps you retain your CTPAT certification in three crucial ways:
- Ongoing education
CTPAT training helps your workforce better understand the CTPAT program, why it exists, and how their actions impact your company’s cargo security and the safety of the supply chain as a whole.
- Meeting evolving requirements
CTPAT training ensures you meet current CTPAT security training requirements and stay up to date on CBP changes.
- Maintaining documentation
Keeping up with CTPAT training will help make sure you have all of the necessary training documentation on hand should you be audited or asked to share your training processes for any other reason.
What Does Comprehensive CTPAT Training Cover?
A thorough, updated CTPAT training program covers all the bases required to obtain and maintain a CTPAT certification. It should detail processes for internal and cargo security as well as steps for ensuring any suppliers and business partners you work with also follow security best practices.
In all, there are more than 160 regulatory aspects of CTPAT that a company must address, and all of these should be covered in your training.
- A few of these points include:
- Access control measures (IDs, employee access, alarms, locks, etc.)
- Visitor vetting and check-ins
- Vendor onboarding and management
- IT system protections (such as passwords and other cybersecurity procedures)
- Dock, warehouse, and other facility protections
- Container inspections (7/8pt., 17/18pt., Agriculture, etc.)
- Cargo pickup log - sign-in and sign-out procedures for delivery drivers
- How to report and document suspicious activity (like suspected tampering, unauthorized people in the workspace, or theft)
- And many more
Some individuals will need more specialized training than others. For example, anyone engaging with cargo and warehouses will need to know how to conduct inspections and agricultural pest checks. Site managers will need additional education on building security processes like physical security, cybersecurity, and emergency procedures.
If your training fails to cover these compliance essentials, it could put your CTPAT status at risk which can have a negative ripple effect across the company.
How Veroot Can Help with CTPAT Training:
Comprehensive CTPAT training covers a lot of information, and developing these sorts of training materials on your own can be annoying - not to mention it requires a great deal of time, effort, and budget.
Due to the myriad of regulations, most of this educational content isn’t easy to develop. For example, if you want to create videos of container inspections, you would have to fly a production team out on the field, locate an empty container, and film an expert following your inspection process, as well as what to do if they discover a problem. You also have to ensure your compliance team is staying fully up to date on all the latest CBP requirements and updating training materials when new requirements are released.
To help alleviate this burden, Veroot has developed a robust CTPAT training program that includes high-definition videos (which can be customized with your company branding). Veroot also offers best-in-class slide presentations, paper-based training PDFs, and a quiz to help confirm your workforce’s knowledge retention. You can easily access these materials through the Veroot platform or upload them to your company’s learning management system (LMS).
The Veroot team is dedicated to ensuring all materials reflect the most recent CBP requirements so you can rest assured your organization always has access to the most accurate training. Plus, you can easily send, track, and manage all training SOPs from a centralized dashboard and easily access documentation should CBP request you to provide proof of training.
By leveraging the Veroot CTPAT training program, you’ll save countless hours and enjoy the peace of mind that comes with knowing you’re doing everything possible to keep your CTPAT certification.
Learn more about the CTPAT training solution and how it can help your organization. Contact us today.
