Efforts to improve the quality and reliability of air cargo services are set to increase thisyear, after the International Air Transport Association (IATA) vowed to widen access to its Cargo
2000 initiative.Cargo 2000 was launched around 15 years ago, in order to improve communication between thedifferent players that make up the international air freight supply chain, in response tocompetition from integrated operators such as FedEx, DHL and UPS, which were able to providegreater speed and reliability by controlling all stages of the process.
However, progress has been slow, and it has been adopted by just 29 airlines and 15 of thebiggest international air freight forwarders, which in many cases only measure and track theperformance of shipments on a handful of the major global trade lanes, so far.
Speaking this week at IATA’s annual global cargo symposium, director general Giovanni Bisignanisaid he wanted to “to evolve these [Cargo 2000 standards] to global quality standards by the end ofthis year”, as part of several initiatives to improve the competitiveness and efficiency of aircargo.
“Customers who pay a premium to ship by air demand premium quality. They want to know that theirshipments are on time and if they are not, they need to know when to expect them to plan around thedelay,” said Bisignani. “This is an example of basic good business practice that air cargo needs toadopt if it is to maintain or improve its competitiveness. Cargo 2000 has developed cargo standards– these should not be the property of a club of a few committed airlines and freight forwarders. Myvision is to evolve these to global quality standards by the end of this year.”
Bisignani did not explain how he aimed to achieve this, although a spokesman for IATA toldCEP-Research: “The global cargo standards refer to the quality of the process and data across thefreight chain – really the quality of the communication between the freight actors. The standardswill be offered to the industry through the Cargo 2000 group and as membership of the group expandsthese standards will be increasingly adopted across the industry.”
Another IATA spokesman added: “The standards are offered at the moment to the Cargo 2000membership. While the broader industry can adopt similar standards, they currently do not haveaccess to the measuring capability that determines accuracy and timeliness of the shipment data.Going forward, the vision is to have the industry completely embrace and endorse the Cargo 2000platform standards and allow every participant to be measured on that basis.”
However, no-one at IATA was able to explain what the airline association would do differentlythis year in order to encourage greater and wider use of the quality initiative.
