Wed, Sep 14, 2011
Exact Numbers Unclear, But Report Estimates 'Tens Of
Billions'
As the 9/11 anniversary approached last week, the Wall
Street Journal's Scott McCartney set out to calculate the cost
of transportation security. Some of the costs are vague and hard to
nail down, but some are clear. In the end, we're spending
tens-of-billions of dollars, and still have gaps in our efforts to
keep terrorists out of our lives.
Airline passengers pay $2.50 per flight leg, or up to $10 per
round trip by airline, but the losses suffered by the airline
industry due to passengers opting to skip flying to avoid being
groped or scanned is harder to determine. Screening of air freight
has added 5-to-8 cents per pound, or about 5 percent, to shipping
costs, although that's significantly less than the 45 cents per
pound in fuel surcharges which were passed on to customers when oil
hit $100 per barrel.
One predicted calamity brought on by screening of cargo, delays
of 24-to-36 hours, have never materialized. The bad news: That's
due at least in part to the fact that the recession has overall
shipping volume well below 2008 levels, so the system has never
been tested at full capacity.
The Transportation Security Administration spends $8 billion a
year on its army of 52,000 screeners, but the productivity and time
lost by travelers delayed by screeners is hard to calculate. TSA is
finally starting to experiment with a trusted traveler program
which would better focus screening efforts on higher-risk
passengers, which may help control the growth in costs to
taxpayers.
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