Digital Pre-notification

The handling agents at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol have been working with digital pre-notification of local export cargo since the beginning of 2021. In September 2020 Worldwide Flight Services, dnata, Air France KLM Martinair Cargo, Menzies Aviation Netherlands B.V. and Swissport Cargo Services all signed a Best Effort declaration to this end.

Text ACN

The aim of this digitalisation is to make the processes around delivery, administrative processing and loading/unloading of export consignments at the airport more efficient, more sustainable, secure and reliable. Thanks to the electronic or digital pre-notification this can, for the most part, happen without physical contact and that, in the 1.5 metre society, is an absolute necessity. The system will become standard practice from 1 September 2021. After that date digitally pre-notified cargo will receive priority whilst cargo that has not been pre-notified digitally will face additional costs as well as still having to go through the, often, timeconsuming administrative handling at the counter at the airport.

Vital link for the future

Digital pre-notification is an essential step in the move towards improved efficiency that the Schiphol community is taking collectively. It is one of the indispensable jigsaw pieces in the process of digital registration, authentication, identification and authorisation of export cargo and for the haulier of the cargo who must deliver his consignments land-side. It is an automated channel of communication between, on the one hand, forwarders and/or transporters and, on the other hand, the handling agents at the airport. Forwarders or transporters notify their export consignment electronically before the driver departs for Schiphol with the consignment. The system means that the electronic Air Waybill (eAWB) is completed in full before a load reaches Schiphol. Once at the airport the chauffeur, with one swipe of his ACN pass over the card reader at the handling agent’s gate, hears if he meets all the conditions for delivery, including the security check and is told to which dock he can drive for the cargo to be unloaded. Maarten van As, Managing Director of ACN, sees considerable advantages: “Thanks to digital prenotification hauliers and forwarders can help accelerate the processing of export cargo. The paperwork required for the consignment has been pro-

Maarten van As

“This is the quality transformation we have been working on for years. Not participating will mean joining the back of the queue”

In September Digital Pre-Notification will be incorporated into the Schiphol Ready-forCarriage procedure. This seems a long way off but there are only four months to go. If you are not yet affiliated, make contact now with the Cargonaut help desk and get started: +31 (0)20 6530808

cessed before arrival at the airport. In this way we put an end to the queues of waiting trucks and chauffeurs on the airport’s terrain. This has numerous advantages: less congestion, reduced CO2 emissions and there is no longer a need to be crammed together in a small office waiting while the paperwork is processed. Less personal contacts are, with an eye on Corona, so important now.” In addition, digital pre-notification can function as a track and trace system; all relevant parties know that the goods are at Schiphol and can prepare accordingly.

System does not allow mistakes

Digital pre-notification occurs in accordance with a standard in which a number of sections must be ticked off. Only when all details have been entered in accordance with the rules, does the eAWB receive five green signals or rather, a green ‘go’ light. Thanks to this preliminary work, a stop at the handling agent’s counter at the airport is no longer always required. Errors can also be removed sooner from the supplied data.

Don’t wait

A considerable number of companies have been testing the system for some months. A best-efforts working group of these forerunners and Cargonaut serve as a sounding board. Every two weeks they run through how things are going and if the process is optimally organised. However, making this new working method second nature can be somewhat problematic as at many companies the work has been done in a particular way for years. For this reason, the forerunners warn, you really should not wait any longer because, as they say themselves, they are still in the midst of refining their systems and processes.

The group of forerunners already using the system represent high volumes that have got the wheel turning. It is now important to further increase the number of consignments and to fully integrate the digital pre-notification system with as many of the large and small parties at and around Schiphol as possible. Cargonaut and ACN are actively ready to assist with guidance.

More information

www.acn.nl/digitaal-vooraanmelden www.cargonaut.nl/elink

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