29 July 2025 | Bremen Freight Forwarders Association sees strengthening of German container ports. Increasing cybercrime and drug smuggling are a threat to the importing economy and freight forwarders. Time and again, criminals try to get import containers delivered from the container terminals. Up to now, this has only required a four-digit PIN number, for example, which is usually passed on by email or telephone between the shipping company, the freight forwarder and the lorry operator. However, this decades-old procedure has now become too susceptible to abuse.

From 1 October, there will be an electronic procedure that effectively prevents the unauthorised collection of containers from the terminals. The system houses responsible for electronic port communication, dbh Logistics IT AG in Bremen and DAKOSY GmbH in Hamburg, have jointly developed a procedure called "Secure Release Order". A release reference for import containers can only be forwarded via the system from the authorised party, for example the freight forwarder, to a truck operator. The lorry operator must also work with the system. Abuse is therefore ruled out from October. Thorsten Dornia, Chairman of the industry association Verein Bremer Spediteure, expressly welcomes the new procedure. "This will make the German ports considerably safer". This is entirely in the interests of freight forwarders, as it is usually the freight forwarders who organise the entire import process, from submitting the documents, arranging container clearance and customs clearance through to commissioning the carriers.

Dornia is pleased that there are no three different systems for the German container terminals in Hamburg, Bremerhaven and Wilhelmshaven, but one standardised procedure. "The fact that dbh and DAKOSY have jointly developed the Security Release Order under the umbrella of 'German Ports' is a strong signal for the German port locations as a whole."

Source: Press release / Verein Bremer Spediteure e.V.