The IATA World Cargo Symposium held in March in Bangkok and attended by over 700 delegates, called for a supply chain approach to battle the current air cargo crisis, highlighting speed, efficiency and reliability.
“The feedback at the conference was clear,” said Aleks Popovich, IATA Global Head of Cargo. “The downturn is the time to bring forward action. We need to move faster and start reaping the benefits of speed, efficiency and reliability from industry programmes such as e-freight and Cargo 2000.”
E-freight will continue to be a key driver for speed, efficiency and cost savings. E-freight currently has the capability to convert 12 paper documents to e-documents and is already operating at 19 locations covering 27 airports. By 2010, the target is to have the capability to remove 64% of the paper from 81% of international shipments.
The conference also highlighted the need to improve quality via Cargo 2000. This project was established over a decade ago to simplify processes by reducing 40 steps in the logistics chain to 19 and to implement effective quality standards.
Quality will also play its part in the Cargo Account Settlement System (CASS). Conference meetings managed to resolve one particular difficulty which will allow forwarders to benefit from the airlines’ speedier resolution of billing errors.
Meanwhile, air cargo security costs continue to rise. Screening technology is not being optimised and definitions, requirements and enforcement vary from country to country. Regulators are now focusing heavily on cargo security and the Industry has a real opportunity to influence the outcome.
"Scanning everything loaded onto the aircraft is a waste of precious resources, "said Popovich. " To be effective, we must develop a cohesive supply chain approach which secures the cargo up-stream and protects the speed of processing. IATA’s Secure Freight strategy focuses on integrating security measures into the current business model and sharing responsibility throughout the supply chain. Governments must remember that this is a global industry. We need a globally coordinated approach that looks at the entire supply chain.”
Wide ranges of actions were agreed at various industry meetings and tracks during the IATA World Cargo Symposium which are outlined in a special issue of Cargo Tracker.
Highlights:
- Heads of cargo leading the way
- e-freight –less paper than ever
- Depending on air mail
- Carrier revenue at risk
- Just a container?
- Economic outlook is bleak
- Quality could be flying higher
- Secure freight moving ahead
- Cargo agency conferences explained
- Reducing radioactive dangers
- Crisis encourages efficiency in distribution
- Expanding Cargo 2000
- Environment takes center stage