Known shipper vs screening: known shipper status vets the company sending the cargo; screening checks the cargo itself, and all cargo on passenger aircraft is screened regardless.
What is a known shipper?
The known shipper program is the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) way of vetting the companies that send air cargo from the United States. TSA "requires aircraft operators, foreign air carriers, and IACs to conduct known shipper programs as required by their TSA-approved security programs", and records the results in its Known Shipper Management System (KSMS), which it uses to identify and approve qualified shippers so their cargo can travel on passenger aircraft.
How it works for a US exporter
- You don't apply to TSA. As TSA puts it, shippers "may contact their transportation service provider and request to become a known shipper": the airline or the indirect air carrier (IAC) you ship through vets you
- For an IAC, 49 CFR 1548.17 requires a known shipper program that determines the shipper's validity and integrity as its security program provides, and separates known shipper cargo from unknown shipper cargo
- Ask for the vetting when you open the account, well before the first shipment's cut-off
Known shipper status is not screening
Under the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007, TSA requires 100% of cargo on passenger aircraft to be screened at a level of security commensurate with checked baggage. Known shipper status does not waive that. Cargo is screened by the airline, or before it reaches the airline at a facility certified under TSA's Certified Cargo Screening Program, which can include a manufacturer's own warehouse.
Imports are different
Known shipper is a US-origin program. For cargo flying into the United States, the security data requirement is CBP's Air Cargo Advance Screening (ACAS) filing, made by the inbound air carrier or an eligible filer such as a forwarder before the cargo is loaded onto the aircraft.
Practical points
- Keep your company details consistent across the air waybill, invoice and vetting records; mismatches stall acceptance
- Dangerous goods add their own checks under the IATA rules on top of known shipper status
Airlift sets up known shippers under its own IAC security program before a first US export; see air freight.
Related terms
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