Barcelona-Catalunya Center Logístic analyzes the situation of the management of air cargo terminals

Journey

Within the framework of the day, the WFS CargoKiosk, the Vellore platform and other digitalization initiatives for cargo communities were presented and ended with a round table to find out the opinion of the users of the handling terminals.

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The Air Cargo and Logistics Security Commission of Barcelona-Catalunya Center Logístic (BCL) On Tuesday, March 7, it organized a conference entitled “The management of docks in terminals: a challenge for the air cargo ecosystem” which served to analyze the operation and current situation of these airport facilities.

 

El general director of BCL, Santiago Bassols, was in charge of welcoming the numerous professionals from the air cargo community of Barcelona who attended this session, and took advantage of the moment to publicize different activities and actions related to innovation and the dissemination of information and knowledge that the entity is implementing.

 

Then Jaume Adrover, general director of GPA and head of the Air Cargo Commission

and Logistics Security, presented the different speakers of the day.

 

The WFS CargoKiosk

 

The first to intervene were Marc Grau, WFS Station Manager, and Rosa Miguelez, CSP Project Manager of WFS, to explain the operation and start-up of the CargoKiosk WFS. CargoKiosk is a tool created by Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) which will be launched on April 1 in the handling terminal of this company located at Barcelona airport and will allow the digitalization of numerous processes implicit in air cargo operations.

 

The CargoKiosk WFS is a terminal similar to an ATM that allows the automated reception and issuance of documentation associated with air cargo and that can be used by carriers to carry out procedures at handling terminals, saving time. Its operation is simple: the carrier is accredited through his ID card or passport and then your registration letter is printed, which includes a PIN number, which is what you have to give to the agent or transport company so that the carrier is included in the list of “trusted carriers, registering only once per carrier,” he indicated. Marc Grau.

 

After this first step, you must log in to the Freightstation platform to obtain the appropriate credentials (transport company or agent) and, from this moment, you can carry out different procedures and obtain information about the pre-announced shipment or the reservation of time slots, as well as obtaining the assignment of docks and the Slot booking –These two operations will be implemented soon.

 

Once this procedure has been completed, through the CargoKiosk, and after completing different steps (selecting the imported consignment, the AWB, the vehicle and its license plate), the carrier obtains information for the collection of the imported goods, printing the delivery sheet ( CFT) that you have to present in the warehouse.

 

In the case of export goods, the process is the same as that of import, although it will be operational at the CargoKiosk WFS starting, probably, April 15. Both Marc Grau and Rosa Miguélez encouraged the air cargo community to use this solution. digitization of documentary processes associated with air cargo because it is “a model that allows anticipation and, therefore, a very important saving of time.” Using CargoKiosk WFS “gives reliability to the chain and speeds up documentary procedures.”

 

Vellore and Air Freight Solution by Portel

 

The next intervention was that of Santos Martínez, manager of Portel, who explained in detail the operation of Vellore, the Cargo Community System promoted by Aena, which is already being used by operators involved in air cargo transport, at the moment for import operations.

 

Vellore allows “to streamline the processes of the air logistics chain through digitalization, avoiding the use of paper,” said Santos Martínez, “because it connects handling agents, freight forwarders, transport companies, transporters and drivers, in addition to the administration. public as Aena and Customs".

 

On this platform, the operator can find information on all flights at all airports, can generate cargo orders, as well as automatically register cargo manifests and request appointments for the collection of goods at handling terminals. In addition, Vellore It offers complete information on customs authorizations and inspections, in addition to the possibility of requesting other services associated with the merchandise, such as deconsolidation or transportation, among others.

 

Respecto a Air Freight Solution (AFS), Santos Martínez, indicated that “it is very similar to Vellore, although it has existed for about five years and was designed for air cargo export processes.” For this reason, Portel is working “to bring both digital platforms together, integrating all AFS procedures in Vellore.” Likewise, at Vellore “we are already incorporating other functionalities that have been requested by the air cargo community, such as, for example, the digitalization of customs processes, the validation of land carriers so that they can upload their credentials to the system, or the artificial intelligence for data analysis so that prognoses can be made.”

 

Other digitalization models in Europe

 

The intervention of Francisco Rizzuto, Regional Head of Air Freight for Europe South at Rhenus Logistics, served to learn about other models of organization of air cargo operations in Europe, specifically in the airports of London-Heathrow and Milan-Malpensa. Francisco Rizzuto began by pointing out that “congestion in terminals and loading docks is a common problem in all European airports” and this situation has led to attempts to implement solutions that, in the case of London and Malpensa, “they have not worked.”

 

For example, in London-Heathrow, and after various unsuccessful initiatives, "they have long considered moving all ground activity linked to air cargo to a remote area of ​​the airport." To do this, they created pre-warehouses outside the airport premises for the delivery and reception of air cargo but, “as customs did not get involved, this initiative failed and never worked,” explained Francisco Rizzuto.

 

In the case of Milan-Malpensa, to speed up operations in the terminals, customs allowed the merchandise “to go to external or secondary warehouses that belong to authorized operators.” It is in these warehouses where “the entry or exit of the merchandise has just been processed.” But this was no solution because "the problem of congestion that existed within the handling terminals ended up being transferred to these external warehouses." In addition, "customs made appointments in dribs and drabs to carriers for the delivery or collection of air cargo," which led to "enormous queues that clogged the access roads to these warehouses, preventing circulation."

 

Now, after the failure of this initiative, Malpensa airport has launched "the third attempt to solve the congestion problems in the handling terminals." It is a “Smart Cargo City that they have been implementing for two weeks and we still do not know if it will work well.”

 

User experience

 

The last part of the day was a round table in which, along with the previous speakers, participated Alfred Lorman, Director Air Freight Europe, Middle East and Africa at Kerry Logistics, and Daniel Carreras, Head of Operations at Cualde Logistics.

 

Those responsible for Kerry and Cualde, exposed the main problems that, as providers of logistics services for exporting and importing companies, they encounter in air cargo terminals.

 

As an example, they explained the most common problems they encounter in handling, such as the lack of handling personnel to handle the volume of collections or deliveries of merchandise that are concentrated in certain time slots; discrepancies in the weight of goods at origin, which cause delays because they must be weighed again at the terminal; or the lack of docks for safe loading and the few docks available for loading/unloading, which means that vehicles have to wait up to three or four hours to deliver or pick up the merchandise.

 

To avoid this slowdown in processes at the terminals, the participants in the round table agreed that all parties must be more coordinated so that all procedures are more effective. And one way to begin to reverse the congestion situation and manage handling terminals with greater agility is to use the digitalization tools that are being launched in the sector. Although their massive use will be slow, they are emerging as a solution for the future.