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Ground Handling dnata: there’s a revolution going on in the supply chain Bernd Struck, senior vice president, UAE cargo and airline services, dnata spoke to ACW ACW: dnata announced the launching of the next-generation e-Commerce platform for the cargo community in the UAE. Bernd Struck: We’ve had community system in Dubai for a while, we started this back in 2008 to streamline our processes in the community, from forwarders to third party logistics to ground handlers and logistic providers. We needed to update this system and over the last two years we have been developing the follow-up programme with Kale Logistics. Kale is a specialised small software provider in India and they fully bought in to our vision of how we want develop in the next decade with this new platform. The old system is 13 years old and it doesn’t have the potential to give all the necessary information, like reporting possibilities, technical allowances, SLA controlling and appointment systems in the way the new system can. ACW: Will this be implemented in other locations?
Struck: It’s our intention with our new partner Kale to bring this in to other parts of the world. Our experience matched with the technical abilities of the software is an ideal tool to bring into other areas. There are many places like in the USA, where this could make life for freight forwarders and all parties involved a lot easier. ACW: dnata has already rolled out the Appointment Dock Management system by Calogi. How have customers responded to these digitalisations? Struck: Statistics show that 90% of customers are happy with our new ADM system for booking appointments and 86% of customers are happy with the operational cost and time saving benefits.
Asia and they come here completely prepared. Much of young people’s lives are on their mobile phone! For us it’s then quite easy to get the tech centric mind-set over to our workforce. ACW: With the success of digital advancements so far, what more is in store at dnata? Struck: We are very active in innovations, not only at Dubai but many other dnata stations. We’re working on a number of projects. For example, we are making advancements in cargo measuring and dimensioning. We have tri-
als in place in Dallas, Singapore and Amsterdam on how to do this and once this proof of concept goes through, we are planning on implementing this across our system. We also recently joined IATA Dangerous Goods Order Check System. We will be the first in Dubai to integrate this into our cargo management system, where we will have the complete transparency of dangerous goods for our customers according to their agreed measures with IATA. This is a really big step forward which we will be implementing across the world.
ACW: How have staff responded? Struck: Staff are keen to learn new process and technology. We have a lot of young people come to work in Dubai from Africa and South
STAYING AHEAD OF THE GAME
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avas is a truly Turkish company. Founded in 1958, but with roots dating back to 1933, it was the first company to provide ground-handling services in Turkey. Today, Havas renders ground handling services at 28 airports in the country and two airports abroad, which include Riga Airport in Latvia and Madinah Airport in Saudi Arabia. Staying ahead of the game in 2021, Mete Erna, general manager, explains how Havas is making significant investments in special cargo capabilities: “We want to ensure the highest service quality for this cargo,” he explained to ACW. “We provide services at international standards in all our warehouses at Ankara, Izmir and Antalya airports, particularly at our Istanbul Airport warehouse which has been equipped with state-of-the-art technologies with an investment of €11 million. “With reefer trucks, we provide cargo transfers from warehouse to warehouse including the perishable cargo delivery through our scheduled road feeder services from Istanbul to Antalya, Ankara
and Izmir as part of our customs-bonded transportation services.” Last month, Havas were awarded European Union Good Distribution Practices (GDP) certification for its pharma and perishable cargos, which require cold storage. “This ensures the quality standards of the storage and transportation processes of pharmaceuticals and products that require cold storage at our warehouse at Istanbul Airport,” said Erna.
Vaccine ready Erna explained that Havas is fully equipped for vaccine transportation, with special freezer units that can cool the cargo to minus 18 degrees. “Our facility also includes special areas with capacities of simultaneously working 18 RKN or 9 RKN and 3 RAP containers to be able to store and preserve containers that contain active freezers to transport vaccines. “We will continue to integrate new technologies and applications to our services in this area,” he added.
ACW 21 JUNE 2021
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