Page 27 - The STAT Trade Times September 2022 Issue

cargo industry, the enormous task of vac- shipment tracking, innovative cloud-based
cine distribution, the spurt in e-commerce, technology can provide the air cargo in-
and the recovery of the transportation and dustry with real-time visibility/ETA for ULDs
logistics industry is what has characterised and shipment status updates. Customer
this period till now. expectations have moved from “Where’s
With the world having witnessed a my stuff?” to also include “How’s my stuff?”
cascading supply chain crisis, rising fuel and The condition of goods in transit has been
input costs, and an uncertain macroeco- especially critical for high-value goods
nomic environment, the air cargo industry and pharma shipments in particular. This
withstood both acute constraints in supply particular technology innovation has been
and an unprecedented increase in demand. Air cargo community enabled by the advancement in next-
This coupled with disruptive technological generation equipment tags and readers to
advancements has led to a mindset shift systems can unlock a monitor the location and condition of ULDs
among the air cargo industry towards the value of at least over and their contents, including temperature,
adoption of technology and digitalisation humidity, light, movement, security, and
to narrow the gaps existing in supply chains $9Bn annually and save chain of custody of goods,” shared Scott
and service their customers efficiently. Sangster, General Manager, Global Logistics
Innovations that may have taken years around 120,000 trees Service Providers at Descartes.
to roll out were adopted within days or annually contributing to “This innovation has also increased the
months across the value chain in many ability for asset owners to charge deten-
areas. From sensors capable of tracking the environment. tion and demurrage on assets not being
location and condition of shipments to Amar More properly returned to owners, which has led
digital tags, 3D scanning, digital identifica- Kale Logistics to increased revenue,” Sangster added.
tion, innovative, interfacing legacy systems Previously an average air cargo shipment
with open architecture-based software, AI- cate things about itself even before leaving had 30 types of documents, over 124 copies
led machine learning to analyze swathes the source and breaking information silos. of paper, and was supposed to stay on the
of real-time data, improving track and trace Cathay Pacific Cargo, for instance, ground for about 85% of the total transporta-
via Bluetooth, or electronic devices, to deployed the Descartes CORE Tracking tion time for paperwork. The efficiency and
wearable robotics, air cargo logistics went Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) readers, tags, reliability of digital processes, where human
digital in a multitude of areas. Incidentally, and network to several airports worldwide error is reduced, present great cost savings,
the leading trade body International Air as part of its Ultra Track cargo tracking and risk reduction for businesses and have
Transport Association (IATA) also hosted service. With near real-time visibility into been a game-changer for the industry.
its first ever ‘Innovation Day’ at its Geneva, shipment status and location for airport- Amar More, CEO & Co-Founder of Kale
Switzerland office on 31 May 2022. to-airport moves of high-value Logistics Solutions, told the publication,
goods, Cathay Pacific trans- “Cargo Community Systems, which
Making cargo interactive formed the customer experience
The power of technology and data has en- while reducing operational costs.
sured today that cargo can today communi- “In terms of first and last mile

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