Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[leslie]

Hi,

I was reading something about container security and there's one sentence that I didn't understand. I hope that someone can explain that to me. Thank you very much.

Do you have a formal seal reconciliation process? No

What does 'seal reconciliation' here mean? and what does the whole sentence mean?

Leslie
_________________
Less Is Blessed

[pugachevV]

Containers are usually sealed with a metallic seal.
Each seal is numbered and cannot be opened without being broken.
All the seal numbers are recorded and an account is kept of where and when each seal is attached to a container. The destination and contents of each container are also recorded.
When the container arrives at its destination with an unbroken seal, this is also recorded, and serves to prove that the container has not been tampered with.
At the end of each accounting period (monthly, annually etc.,) the list of seal numbers is reconciled by accounting for the whereabouts of each one. (e.g. arrived, in transit on ship X, lost at sea, in customs etc., etc.)


To reconcile = to make (one account) consistent with another, especially by allowing for transactions begun but not yet completed.