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The International Air Cargo Association respite for players, and the air cargo
(TIACA). "For me, any form of digital collab- industry is no exception.
oration or digital integration beyond the "Today’s supply chains are very frag-
borders of a single company but benefit- mented and disparate," says Vineet
ting a group of companies in a community Malhotra, Director & Co-Founder, Kale
can be referred to as a CCS. That being Logistics Solutions. "In order to support
said, this also means you have a wide sustainable growth in the logistics industry,
range of CCSs with limited functionalities For me, any it is of paramount importance that the
to full-fledged, all-including IT systems. right physical and digital infrastructure
"It is important that each community form of digital is put in place in the country that can
and all its stakeholders acquire those collaboration or facilitate the ease of doing business. As per
functionalities they need or where they IATA, each air cargo shipment, on average,
could benefit from. And these function- digital integration carries around 30 types of documents and
alities may grow over time, depending well over 100 copies resulting in significant
on the maturity of the community, the beyond the documentation overheads, increased dwell
vision of the community as well as the borders of a single times and supply chain opaqueness.
operational needs. "Cargo Community System is an
"The business case for me consists out company but electronic platform that can allow the
of two important factors: reusability of data, thereby eliminating
Financial benefit because of a more benefitting a group duplicate data entry, reducing unneces-
integrated and smoother operational of companies in a sary paperwork by giving authorised ac-
logistical chain saving direct costs; and cess to data to the relevant supply chain
A smarter community because of the community can be stakeholder and bringing supply chain
insights generated and the data avail- visibility, thereby reducing inventory and
able, giving companies the opportunity referred to as other transaction costs related to cargo
to offer a better service or optimise as- a CCS. movement. There is a lot of impetus from
sets, again resulting indirectly in a higher national governments, global bodies like
efficiency and cost saving." Steven Polmans the United Nations, IATA, IMO, TIACA,
With one crisis after another hitting The International Air Cargo WTO and WCO to have CCS in place
the supply chain, there seems to be no Association (TIACA) to build the logistics single window
16 | AUGUST 2022 www.stattimes.com
