COLLABORATION
BUSINESS
after the e-commerce market.
His former airline launched
an online delivery platform in
the United Arab Emirates in
October that allows residents
shopping from multiple
online retailers in the US to
consolidate their purchases
and have them delivered to a
home or offi ce address.
“Emirates don’t have fi rst
and last mile capability. That’s
where collaboration comes in,”
he explains.
Door-to-door developments
At the end of October this
year, Delta Cargo announced
a door-to-door parcel service
from its Atlanta base to over 55
cities in the US, with dozens
more cities earmarked to be
added shortly. To that end the
airline partnered with Roadie,
an Atlanta-based, same day
delivery service.
Delta Air Lines has actually
been working with Roadie
since 2015 on the passenger
side of the business, confi rms
Director of Cargo Strategy &
Alliances Matt Weisenberg,
and with customers highly
satisfi ed with the transparency
and quality of the service, the
carrier was keen to continue
the momentum and bring the
innovative product offering to
customers on the cargo side of
the business, he explained at
the launch.
SEKO has also partnered
with Roadie for fi nal mile
delivery of goods from some
Why reinvent
of its customers from the UK
and Australia.
the wheel if a
Menen thinks ground
strategic partner
can integrate with
our system?
Bob Imbriani, Executive Vice President
Team Worldwide handling fi rms could also
extend their reach to the fi rst
and last mile by teaming up
with players like Roadie. This
would be of great benefi t
for some of their airline
customers that are eager to tap
into the e-commerce business,
he reckons.
Historically, logistics fi rms
have been eager to promote
their brand, but in the
emerging e-commerce universe
these will become irrelevant,
he predicts.
“Brands like Amazon and
JD.com will be up front. It
doesn’t matter to the consumer
where the product is from or
who carried it. You don’t care
if your iPhone was trucked,
moved by ocean or by air. You
only see the man who delivers
it. He has no brand identity, he
is a subcontractor,” he refl ects.
“Amazon realised that the
customer doesn’t care who the
vendor is.”
For logistics providers, this
means they are becoming
adjuncts to the online product.
“We’re an extension of the
brand so much more than
before,” says Bourke. This calls
for an unprecedented degree of
integration. “We don’t move
boxes anymore. We’ve got to
engage with customers, talk
and listen to them.”
The implication is that the
dialogue with the client has
to happen at multiple levels,
including operations as well
as customer service staff. Still,
one of the key elements is IT
integration, although this is a
lot less cumbersome and costly
than in the days of EDI links.
“A lot of beta testing goes
into this,” declares Bourke,
who is certain that these
developments will spill over
to the B2B arena. “It’s just a
matter of time before this goes
to B2B,” he stresses.
Covering the globe
While e-commerce has been
a massive catalyst for these
changes, it is not the only
engine driving the push for
more alliances and increased
collaboration.
“You need to cover the
world. The only way you
can do that is work with
somebody else,” remarks
Menen. As for Andres Bianchi,
CEO of LATAM Cargo, he sees
a need for better alignment
across the air cargo sector.
“The industry in general is
in need of better integration
so we can better utilise our
networks to better serve our
customers,” he says. “It would
be better if we co-operate.”
The need for collaboration
extends beyond modal
barriers. A number of North
American port authorities
have called for closer cooperation
with rail and truck
operators in order to cope
with the ongoing problems of
congestion and delays.
Even competitors are being
drawn into the game. Canada
Worldwide is renting space in
the warehouse of a competitor
in Vancouver for its
distribution activities on the
West Coast. That competitor
refers clients to Canada
Worldwide’s Toronto facility
when its own warehouse in
the area is full.
“We all have to work
together and be smarter,” says
Imtiaz Kermali, Vice President
of Sales & Marketing at the
company, underlining the fact
that co-operation is now the
name of the game.
Indeed, as 2020 looms
large, the concept of entities
within the logistics chain (as
well as some on the periphery)
working hand-in-glove all
makes perfect sense. It is, in
essence, the ultimate win-win
situation.
46 December 2019 www.airlogisticsinternational.com
/JD.com
/www.airlogisticsinternational.com