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The air freight industry could prevent further modal shift – and even boost volumes ? if it responded better to the needs of the shipper, delegates at TIACA’s Executive Summit in Dallas heard last week.

In a speech littered with the word unprofessional, Robert Mellin, head of distribution logistics for Ericsson, revealed that the air freight industry is failing to make itself attractive and failing to compete on service levels with other modes of transport.

Top of the shippers’ wish list, he ...

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  • Cameron

    April 29, 2013 at 10:55 pm

    Robert Mellin should concentrate on what he knows best and leave the actual logistics (moving things from A to B) to the professionals. The industry is fighting all the time against the system, for one example, freight and passengers on the same aircraft pay a fuel surcharge, two lots of money for the same space? this cannot be so but we have to deal with it and pass it on to the shipper.

    Also in the UK the old 512B ground handling charges have gone by the way side, handing is not regulated any more and all charges are a free for all, again we have no say in what we pay, it is passed on. Each airline and each handling agent is different as well, some are great and some are bad. Maybe you (Robert Mellin) should visit a freight forwarder for a week and then you might see that we are all singing from the same sheet as you, instead of shouting your mouth off, we hear you and agree with you but we cannot get the answers you are looking for either.

    With 24 years in the industry, I still have clients who think they know best when it comes to shipping freight, they think by putting cross tape on the top of the box it will secure the box for the journey but they forget to cross tape the bottom of the box as well and then when the goods fall out they will blame rough handling.