Air, Freight News

Global K9 enters Benelux market

[ June 18, 2025   //   Chris Lewis ]

Cargo screening specialist Global K9 is poised to extend its canine screening services to the Netherlands and Belgium, says chief strategy officer, Chris Daniels.

Global K9 is working with a joint venture partner in the Netherlands, Twickerveld Cargo Screening, a company that is already active in canine narcotics screening. In Belgium, it has acquired K9 Agent Bentley. It will initially have around 20-30 dogs in each country.

The dogs themselves will come from a Netherlands-based supplier which, coincidentally, is the one that supplies most of the four-legged staff for its main operations in the US.

The plan is to offer screening by free-running dogs for pallets and ULD containers and also ‘REST’ screening, whereby dogs screen filters through which air  has been vacuum-extracted from consignments.

Both methods have their benefits. REST screening requires the truck to park up but can be quicker because the dogs can stay in a designated spot and have the filters brought to them. Free-running dogs are used where the cargo has been unloaded from the truck and is awaiting loading onto the plane.

The plan is to offer services at all the main gateways in the Netherlands and Belgium, says Daniels – Schiphol, Maastricht, Brussels and Liege. It has taken some time to get the operation set up in both countries as it was necessary to work with various state agencies and to train staff.

Airfreight will be the main focus initially, says Daniels. However, he is well aware that the two countries are home to Europe’s two biggest seaports and a move in screening of ocean containers cannot be ruled out at some time in the future.