Electronic
documents, like the
e-AWB, have turned
out to have an
unintended benefi t:
the absence of the
need to physically
touch paper
Henk Mulder, IATA
backseat whilst the industry
deals with its operational
challenges. It turned out
that publishing contact
and connectivity details,
and accessing those of
your partners, is a highly
important service, in
particular when the supply
chain is disrupted and needs
to adapt and when digital
communication is fast and
safe,” he added.
Paperchase mentality
The air cargo industry remains
an overwhelmingly paperbased
industry. Readers
will, one fears, be all too
aware of (and in many cases
embarrassed by) the statistics.
Anything up to 30 types of
documents, together with
perhaps 124 copies of paper
have to be produced to effect
an air cargo shipment. But
for those who have dipped a
toe in the water have come
slightly unexpected bonuses.
“Electronic documents, like
the e-AWB, have turned out to
have an unintended benefi t:
the absence of the need
to physically touch paper
documents that have been
touched by others recently. In
some cases, the air cargo paper
documentation is shipped
separately from the cargo via
express couriers. Electronic
documents don’t have this
issue,” stresses Mulder.
“Most, if not all, airlines
still handle a lot of paper
documents and they have
dedicated teams that process
these documents. Typically,
they will manually verify the
correctness of the data and
key in the most important
aspects into their systems.
This requires the physical
presence of these teams,
which can be up to 100
operations into the digital
arena due to reinforced
need of digital solutions.
For example, the certifi cate
of origin is a document
required to move an air freight
consignment and people have
to physically reach out to
the Chamber of Commerce
to get it done. But the offi ces
of these chambers are not
working now,” he points out.
To emphasise the benefi ts
is easy. “The airports with our
next generation community
systems were able to operate
virtually, with very less direct
human interaction, and in
effect more effi ciently. Airport
employees were able to
process the paper while they
are working from home.”
Removal of the
unnecessarily complex steps
brings benefi ts elsewhere.
“To move life-saving
drugs, for example, the
forwarder has to deal with
the customs declaration,
send the air waybill to the
airline and pay handling
charges to the airport. Our
GMAX portal has all these
things articulated into a
single platform. The impact
of lockdown was minimised
for airports with community
systems. The software also
enables the people to process
these requirements 24/7,
particularly during Saturdays
and Sundays,” he adds.
One big digital ecosystem
With the crisis comes
innovation. For IT solutions
provider IBS Software, it has
meant looking into two levels
of collaboration, namely the
digital players and the air
cargo stakeholders.
Ashok Rajan, Senior Vice
President and Head, Cargo
& Logistics Solutions, IBS
employees in some cases.
Electronic documents would
have allowed this work to
be done remotely while
teleworking,” he explains.
Who’s done what – and when
In May this year Kale Logistics
Solutions introduced its PING
product, a new document
processing solution for agents,
freight forwarders and ground
handlers. This welcome
addition to its portfolio is
essentially one of the small
modules separated from the
company’s bigger air cargo
community system.
During the lockdown
period the company entered
into agreements with two
international airports to
implement its community
system, completed a sale
to a charter operator in a
record time of just three
days, and was approached
by some major General Sales
& Service Agents. CEO Amar
More explained the rationale
behind the development.
“Air cargo community
systems are big projects which
will take time and several
stakeholder interactions
to implement. So we have
broken down the system
into smaller modules to help
different stakeholders to
interact digitally for separate
operations. PING is one such
module that helps GHAs
and freight forwarders in
document processing which
has received a tremendous
demand from different
geographies, including North
America, Europe and the
Middle East.
“Since the lockdown, we
have been receiving requests
from ground handlers,
airlines, airports and charter
operators to transform their
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