Page 28 - STAT-March-2024-for-wesbite

Boeing 707 aircraft in its fleet (making it
In the late ‘60s
however, the
international cargo
scene was not too
exciting, even though
Air India, having now
introduced Boeing
707 aircraft in its
fleet (making it the
first all-jet airline
in the world), had
converted its super
constellations
into freighters to
carry commodities,
such as spices,
sandalwood oil and
supari [betel nuts], to
the Indian diaspora
abroad.
26 26 | MARCH 2024 www.stattimes.com | MARCH 2024
the aircraft arrival, the pilot was mortified
the first all-jet airline in the world), had to observe on landing that the airport
converted its super constellations into had been closed to allow only his plane
freighters to carry commodities, such as to land, bomb squads surrounded the
spices, sandalwood oil and supari [betel plane, evacuated passengers and then
nuts], to the Indian diaspora abroad. went in search of the offending shipment:
So, now that Airfreight Limited had that equally innocuous description on the
built its own small cargo terminal at waybill stored for TNT, strictly prohibited
Santacruz airport, I turned my attention to for carriage!
domestic cargo. Every night the terminal This incident led us to institutionalise
would come alive as newspapers from rigorous and long-lasting training courses
the Times of India press arrived for a quick across the Company. I was proud that our
sort and loading on to the first morn- head of air cargo ran DGR courses for our
ing Indian Airlines flights to destinations entire DHL network and, after retirement,
across India. The night staff also used to for the industry at large.
book live chicks from poultry farms in In 1977, a tall American gentleman,
Pune, Joy Ice-cream packed in dry ice wearing a cowboy hat arrived at my of-
and other such products which, in those
fice to introduce himself from DHL and
days, were produced centrally and then enquire if we’d like to be their partners
distributed by air. for courier services in India. I confess I had
I recall a demanding SOP prescribed by neither heard of DHL nor knew what a
the Times of India: issues of Filmfare and courier service was! As DHL had only one
Femina magazines would arrive at our customer in India, requiring super-fast
office late Saturday night, and have to be movement of a bag between Bombay and
booked immediately, on Air India’s flights Singapore, daily, we readily agreed as we
were proficient in booking and retrieving
to London; upon arrival, they had to be
swiftly distributed to various cinema hous- cargo at Bombay airport.
es around London to catch Indians leaving And that’s how DHL started in India
the theatres after watching the Sunday with AFL providing the proverbial “one
morning Hindi film shows. Even 50 years man and a dog” to set up the service.
ago, the Times of India used air freight to It’s difficult to overstate how DHL
precisely reach their target audience. transformed AFL into a technology-driven,
Booking international air shipments customer focussed organisation, innovating
required considerable experience to con- new processes to meet constantly challeng-
struct tariffs using the TACT (the several ing service standards. Time only permits me
hundred pages Air Cargo Tariff) and we to mention two such innovations.
The first was to solve the problem of
did make mistakes.
An urgent four-tonne shipment booked delays in moving documents through a
to Hanover went missing till it turned 2-3 day process in Customs (and closed on
up in Riyadh airport! While our booking Sundays!), when the DHL service standard
staff had correctly typed the AWB with was to get inward shipments off the plane
Hanover’s 3-letter Code HAJ, a bright spark and on to the kerb-side in 60 minutes. The
in ground handling loaded it on to a flight only procedure that allowed immediate
for Saudi Arabia, as "Haj" to him could passage through customs was the “Note
mean nothing else! & Pass” system. Only “dead bodies, live
More serious still, was a shipment animals, perishables and diplomatic bags”
booked from one of our inland stations could speed this way through Customs
destined for Frankfurt via Bombay on LH provided the paperwork was completed
[Lufthansa]. It was an innocuous look- in 24 hours. Intense lobbying succeeded
ing, transparent liquid, described as in getting our courier bags on to this list,
Trinitrotoluene. As cargo manifests were under a newly invented nomenclature
communicated to destinations ahead of “Accomplished Documents”. This sounded
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