IATA Working to Streamline Air Cargo Handling Operations, Reduce Shipping Times, Says Official
LAS VEGAS -- As part of its effort to reduce air transit times, the International Air Transport Association will be developing new cargo standards for ground handlers, said Warren Jones, president-Cargo Network Services (CNS) at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America annual conference on April 8. Jones said the effort to have cargo spend less time waiting on the ground, as well as the ongoing e-Air Waybill program, will help the air cargo group meet its goal of cutting the current six-and-a-half day average timeframe for air shipments by 48 hours before 2020. On the domestic side, the development of Air Cargo Advance Screening (ACAS) is progressing and will prove to be a boon to the forwarding industry, said industry officials.
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Ground operations can cause some of the biggest slowdowns for air cargo, said Charles Riley of Steer Company, president of the New York/New Jersey Foreign Freight Forwarders & Brokers Association, during a question and answer session following the panel discussion. “My experience is, we really get tie-ups once the product gets to the U.S., through the cargo handlers [and] through the airlines,” he said. "I send drivers down, they sit there for hours waiting to be picked up.”
IATA and CNS, which is a subsidiary of IATA, are aware of the issue, and are looking to begin a project to tackle the problem this year. “One of the things we’re doing at IATA is we’re actually going to put out cargo standards for ground handlers worldwide,” said Jones. “We expect a certain load has a time. We’re going to rate all major handlers in the United States,” he said. The standards will allow shippers to compare cargo handling times at different airports, and will put pressure on slow cargo handling operations to improve, said Jones. “That’s a project that’s starting this year. We will put it out for everyone to see.”
Reducing cargo handling times will help IATA’s broader effort to make air cargo more competitive by reducing transit times. “The industry average is six-and-a-half days right now,” said Jones. “By 2020 we want to reduce that by 48 hours. That’s a big order, but there are ways to make it happen.”
The organization’s e-air waybill (e-AWB) program is part of that effort. “We are leading the effort on e-air waybill,” said Jones. “We want to make it happen.” IATA approved a standard e-AWB in March 2013 (see 13032728). Previously, airlines and forwarders had to individually come to agreement on the use of e-AWBs. Under the agreement, forwarders can use e-AWBs with any carrier that has signed the agreement. “Right now, as of January, we have 516 freight forwarders who have 3,000 affiliate offices world-wide who have signed the multilateral e-air waybill agreement,” said Jones. “About 90 percent of those are here in the United States. Fifty airlines have also signed this agreement,” he said.
IATA is already starting to see results, said Jones. Through its Cargo 2000 system for tracking air shipments, the group has seen that shipments using the e-AWB arrive quicker and are able to get through problem areas more easily and efficiently, he said. “That’s one of the reasons we’re pushing the e-air waybill system so much,” said Jones.
Work Continues on Automation, ACAS
On the government side, officials see security benefits from the e-AWB program and other automation efforts. “Our view on this is that the electronic supply chain is much more secure than a paper supply chain,” said Thomas Friedman, industry engagement manager at the Transportation Security Administration. That’s because paper documents are more easily faked. “In the electronic supply chain … you can see who’s submitting that data. There’s a different level of responsibility,” he said. According to Friedman, TSA officials will met in Miami during the week of April 12-19 to hammer out some details related to automation. “Hopefully by the end of next week we’ll have a lot of those questions answered.”
Along the same vein, CBP is getting close to launching a pilot program to test electronic export manifests, said Thomas Hoffman, director-Cargo and Conveyance Security at CBP. It’s “amazing that the export manifest is still paper,” said Hoffman, and making it electronic will save air carriers money and bring CBP into the 21st Century. The pilot program should be ready later this summer, said Hoffman. And air forwarders and carriers continue to pilot the ACAS system, but the regulatory process to extend the program to all air cargo is underway, said Hoffman. “Right now, we’re at the initial stages of the regulatory process,” said Hoffman.
According to Cindy Allen of DHL Global Forwarding, the ACAS pilot has been a “great opportunity” for her company. “If you aren’t participating, you really need to look into this,” she said in comments following the panel discussion. “The regulations are coming.” Flexibility from CBP and TSA have helped ease the process, she said. “If you have a software package, chances are you’re going to have the ability to transmit this information behind the scenes because of the flexibility of the ACAS program. It’s not a specific set of data similar to the CAMIR or the CATAIR. It has been a great opportunity for us,” she said. Early filing in ACAS and the Cargo Release (formerly Simplified Entry) program will expedite shipments and prove a boon to clients, said Allen. “When you marry the ACAS filing with the [Cargo Release] filing, your clients are going to have an advantage over others.”