Tag Archives: CNS Partnership Conference

Cargo News, Ignazio Coraci

What the industry can learn from BRUcloud, the open community technology platform used at Brussels airport

Leave a comment

Could a new app be a taste of the way our industry uses technology in the future?

 

Brussels airport has already had a great deal of success with its BRUcloud open community platform in recent years – and it seems that freight forwarders at the airport are now embracing the cutting edge data-sharing technology to develop new solutions to old problems.

 

Industry backing

The Customs Export Application was strongly supported by Air Cargo Belgium (ACB) – who represent the country’s air cargo community – and with the advantages it delivers it’s clear to see why the technology has been given the industry body’s backing. The app matches collected manifest data (both from the freight forwarders themselves and existing data that is available within the BRUcloud system) and then automatically reports complete and accurate information to customs. The new technology saves time on all sides – particularly in terms of the amount of time processing air waybills. Customs have also agreed to clear shipments handled via the app first, providing yet another opportunity to speed up processes for all stakeholders.

 

A shared approach

A real key to the success of the app has been the collaborative approach taken by all parties – both in terms of the development of the Customs Export Application and its subsequent roll out.

 

“This collaboratively created app results in a lower administrative burden for all the parties,” says Bart Vleugels, who is advisory general at the Federal Public Service of Finance, Customs and Excise Duties. “Digitization within BRUcargo will further lower the chances of errors and will help to drastically decrease lead times.”

 

Freight forwarders have certainly bought in to the new technology, with 90 per cent of the air freight passing through BRUcargo now using the app.

 

Industry best practice

Ignazio Coraci comments: “The industry can learn a huge amount from the great work done at BRUcargo, not just in terms of the technology itself and its application, but also in the collaborative approach taken to its development by everyone involved. This kind of open cooperation between stakeholders is a model for similar projects.”

Cargo News, Ignazio Coraci

Hong Kong sees a surge in growth for first half of 2017

Leave a comment

It has been a truly impressive start to the year for Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), with growth in traffic right across the board. In terms of air cargo business, HKIA has handled an impressive 2.3 million tonnes of cargo already this year in the first six months to June – that’s up a remarkable 11.3% on the same period last year.

Booming exports

So what has been behind HKIA’s great start to the year – and more importantly, do the experts think it will be sustained? Well, in the latest figures from June, 410,000 tonnes of cargo passed through the airport, up 11.4% on 2016 – and there are indications that a 17% year-on-year increase in June exports from the airport led to the high growth in cargo tonnage for that period. That bump in export figures has certainly contributed then to the airport’s positive performance in the first half of 2017, but HKIA has also benefited from an improved global outlook. And with the Asian markets leading the way in air cargo growth, HKIA is in prime position to take advantage of a global economic performance that is looking positive in terms of consumer and business confidence.

Investing for the future

HKIA isn’t standing still, with work starting last August on a third runway to help accommodate future growth. The airport is also making further investments to ensure it meets the needs of customers.

“On the cargo front, HKIA continues to develop its ability to serve fast-growing segments of the high-value cargo business, such as fresh produce and temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals that require specialised handling,” says an airport spokesperson. “The airport authority and local industry stakeholders are working closely together to pursue the IATA Centre of Excellence for Independent Validators in Pharmaceutical Logistics (CEIV Pharma) accreditation on airport community basis and HKIA is expected to be recognised as an IATA CEIV Pharma Partner Airport by the third quarter in 2017.”

A sustainable future

Ignazio Coraci comments: “Clearly Hong Kong is an important site for both our ASC Cargo and SW Italia businesses, and so the news that air freight handling is continuing to grow there is great to hear. I’m also really encouraged by the investment in infrastructure that is being made at HKIA – it will go a long way towards making sure that the performance we’ve seen so far this year is sustained.”

Cargo News, Ignazio Coraci

Business continuity

Leave a comment

Cyber attacks by hackers are becoming a huge problem in our increasingly connected and technology-driven world.

A growing threat

Recent examples include the global ransomware attack back in May that disrupted many critical systems – not least in the UK’s National Health Service, which was badly affected for a number of weeks, severely impacting patient care. Closer to home in – terms of the air freight industry at least – was the attack on marine container shippers AP Moller Maersk, that saw a large number of their critical IT systems hit by the so-called ‘Petya’ operation.

One of the key phrases that is usually heard in the aftermath of such attacks is the need for a more robust procedure around ‘business continuity.’ But what does this really mean, and what steps has the industry already taken to lessen the impact of similar attacks – or even global IT system failures such as the one that recently hit British Airways – in the future?

Plan B

A new system that has been implemented in the UK might give some clues as to the future shape of our industry’s response to this issue. The ‘CCS-UK Fallback’ system is intended to allow the UK air cargo industry to continue running in the event of any prolonged problems with the HMRC’s vital CHIEF (Customs Handling of Import and Export Freight) system. The new system means that traders will be able to continue processing Customs export declarations even with CHIEF down, and it has been designed to run for 30 days. The system’s development is a great example of collaboration between the private sector and government to safeguard an industry that’s worth billions.

“We have recently seen the horrendous impact of major IT system failures in aviation, and this cannot be allowed to happen to the UK air cargo industry which provides essential support to UK trade and industry, helps maintain our competitiveness on the world stage and supplies urgent commodities that are sometimes a matter of life and death,” says Steve Parker, DHL’s Head of Customs for Europe and Chairman of the CCS-UK User Group.

Safeguarding our customers

Ignazio Coraci comments: “The CCS-UK Fallback system is a real step forward, and I think it could be used as a model right across the sector. The service that we provide as an industry must have effective protection and we should all have business continuity plans in place – it’s the least we owe to the millions of customers who rely on us.”

Cargo News, Ignazio Coraci

A time to transform

Leave a comment

The annual CNS Partnership Conference is an important date in the air cargo calendar, and this year’s event was a chance to reflect on the pace of change in our industry.

Air cargo is a hugely complex business. It’s a $100 billion industry that can sometimes seem to move incredibly slowly, particularly where technology – and change in general – is concerned.

Slow to adapt

These concerns were touched on recently at the Annual CNS Partnership conference. The event – one of the premier events in the air cargo year – is an opportunity to bring together hundreds of the world’s leading air cargo professionals to discuss the latest developments in the industry.

This year’s keynote address was given by Ryan Petersen, the CEO of Flexport. His is a business that reflects the changing face of our industry – a software-driven freight forwarder that is at the forefront of modernising the business. Yet, as he pointed out in his speech, the industry is sometimes slow to change.

“Airlines offer something nobody needs,” he said – they “move cargo from airport to airport, but every single piece of cargo must go door to door.”

A patchy service

Petersen’s comments were echoed at the event by Blake Bowlin, global transportation procurement manager at Caterpillar. “The quality of supply chain is hit or miss,” said, adding that “Airport to airport is fine, but we look at it from a door-to-door perspective.”

This goes to the heart of one of the major issues facing the industry – that while shippers are looking for a door to door service, the complexity of air cargo with its multiple hand-offs makes this incredibly complicated.

A digital future

Unsurprisingly, given Flexport’s software-driven approach to the future of forwarding, Petersen used the speech at the CNS Partnership event to look ahead at how technology might transform our industry for the better. He talked about the potential impact of technology that can reroute cargo in transit, and autonomous, programmable freight that can even make its own decisions on the best route to the end customer.

An open approach

Ignazio Coraci, CEO of SW Italia comments: “The way that we adapt and integrate these new technologies into our industry, simplifying the complex processes and ultimately improving the quality of service for our customers is critical. We need to be flexible and open, while creating a robust network of interconnected systems that help our experts on the ground to do their jobs even better.”