News in Brief podcast | Week 30 2024 | Surcharges, strikes and IATA's stressful settlements
In this episode of The Loadstar’s News in Brief Podcast, host and news reporter Charlotte Goldstone ...
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Recently retired IATA cargo head Des Vertannes has, through sheer determination and willpower, raised awareness of air cargo as a core business for member airlines and the industry at large. At the same time, he has raised a flag to show the need for change in a business with too many fundamental flaws.
Air cargo is a small village and much gets done through personal contacts. But we must face facts: it has not got us far enough or fast enough ...
Comment on this article
Michael Kusuplos
June 09, 2014 at 3:12 pmExcellent article for every manager to read. Greatest take away of all is the last sentence! It is the simple retort that I’ve been seeking to counter the always-present complaint about change. Thank you!
P Balasubramanian
June 09, 2014 at 6:45 pmA well written article – blunt facts. Unless one understands as to what the real causes of the divergence between the two groups are and fix it, delivery times of air cargo will continue to slip further.
Bruis van Driel
June 09, 2014 at 7:47 pmCompelling story, lots of overlap with maritime cargo. Seems that with all the process oriented initiatives of the last two decades, moving cargo around the globe is still a pretty siloed operation
Dave Ambridge
June 10, 2014 at 11:53 amGreat article that mirrors so many of my own thoughts and frustrations! What can we do to help Glyn? Easy…..change! I know that the members of IATA COAG will do this and we will continue to simply the business and remove obstacles. People find it easier to say NO than actually look at change. Airline legacy systems don’t lend themselves easily to change and the modern day hence things get slowed down again and again. Enough of that now. Modernise or stay behind the rest of us that want 100% E-AWB now, who want the Industry MOP to drive business forward, and who want real change in this business. It takes 6- 6.5 days because that’s what people want, it’s really that simple. If they want it quicker they give it to FX, DHL, UPS and pay much more for their service.
We certainly can change, and we certainly can deliver what Customers want just as long as we know what that is.
Roy Linkner
June 12, 2014 at 11:11 amAir cargo services provided by the airline/forwarder partnership will not be able to make step change improvements and fully exploit the full potential of its value proposition of: speed, handling speciality, anything anywhere to the last mile (e.g. ships can’t go inland) without a complete overhaul and introduction of full transparency and visibility of the delivery chain of shipped products. Shippers must insist on knowing exactly where and when hand-offs and milestones are made and by which party. Combination airlines and freighter operators who are serious about maximizing their ROI’s and asset optimization need to step up and set bold & public shortened cycle time goals and handling guarantees, that sets the bar higher and brings the opportunity of a rising tide raising all ships. Just look at the reform the passenger industry has achieved, technology enabled completely different buying and selling behaviors over a very short period of time because the value benefit justified equally high adoption levels of suppliers and users. An industry interest group such as IATA cannot solve the erosion of the value proposition of the carrier/forwarder air cargo product is facing because of the complexity of that relationship and as Stan rightly wrote “……often with competing and underlying objectives…..”. It’s time the visibility should be put out there and allow the shipping public to decide what value they may place on improved transparency and hopefully a competitively driven cycle time improvement and who they hold accountable.