Holisol Logistics has launched PPC (production planning & control) and DAP (dispatch allocation planning) in order to extend its offering into the customers manufacturing supply chains. The company has been offering full-stack logistics systems like WMS, TMS, OCFS etc to digitalise customers’ supply chain. VERDIS, Holisol’s AI and ML system has added these two additional modules to assist the customer to optimise their production and dispatch planning by analysing demand, sales forecasts, production capacities, rules and planning constraints analysing up to 75m data points to give an output which has helped customers save several million and precious resources involved in the planning process. Rahul S Dogar, Co-Founder of Holisol Logistics, says, “With PPC and DAP modules, Holisol has ventured into the manufacturing segment of the supply chain and will continue to build an end-to-end value chain system to help customers digitalise and optimise their supply chains.”

In order to cut India’s dependence on overseas hubs to send and receive container cargo, shipping ministry has decided to designate a port as a transshipment hub. The step has been taken under ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ (self-reliant India) initiative. The Ministry will pick the port based on the report submitted by a committee formed for the purpose of deciding the criteria for declaring a port and developing it as a transshipment hub. Container volumes handled at Indian ports in FY19 hit 16.5 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), with the Central government-owned major ports handling 9.8 million TEUs and private ports handling 6.7 million TEUs, according to the Ministry of Shipping.

Alitalia Airlines has launched its first cargo flight from Mumbai to New York via Rome [Mumbai (BOM) – Rome (FCO) – New York (JFK)] with B777-300 / B777- 200 aircraft on June 20, 2020. The airline would be operating a weekly P2C flight on Mumbai – Rome – New York route with B777 aircraft without cabin seats. It is scheduled to operate every Saturday/Sunday, offering a capacity of 50 tonnes per flight. With its strong and robust network, the airline is offering onward connectivity into Europe & USA. Air Logistics Group is the cargo GSSA for Alitalia in India since 2018 with the airlines having had a successful daily operation DEL- FCO pax flight through A330 aircraft in the pre-Covid times. Deepak Kumar, Cargo Manager – Western India, Air Logistics Group, says, “The customers in Mumbai are delighted to have the Italian bird flying back to Mumbai and have given a stupendous welcome to the carrier which is clearly reflected by an overwhelming response to the capacity offered, with the first flight taken off with a whopping success of full capacity utilisation for Italy, Europe and USA.” “We are here to serve during these challenging times and assure our complete support to our cargo fraternity because we firmly believe that problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines,” he adds.

To give its customers more autonomy when booking, schedule searching and submitting claims online, American Airlines Cargo has added new features to its digital booking platform aacargo.com. “Our new technology platform allows for a better experience for our customers, enables them to make bookings at their convenience and offers more flexibility and efficiencies behind the scenes for our team members,” says Angela Hudson, Head of Transformation, American Airlines Cargo. The latest new tools will both streamline and advance business through reduced paper use and an increasingly more touchless system. This type of efficient foundation allows for greater flexibility and speed to market for new products and solutions to continue to provide the best in customer service. The entire technology transition began more than three years ago and involves more than 8,000 team members in cargo and airport operations, and more than 30,000 customers.

Addressing the global demand for additional storage capacities is rising, DB Schenker has implemented a global space scan to identify and assess available idle space in all their own contract logistics warehouses. Changing customer behavior, due to COVID-19, has led to shipping backlogs in various regions around the globe. At the same time, growing consumer demands for certain goods, for example in the food or health care sector, have led to an increase in production. This has created a need for additional space along two dimensions: Currently unsaleable items need to be stored temporarily, and companies must build up stocks to avoid interruptions in supply. Xavier Garijo, Board Member – Contract Logistics, DB Schenker, says, “In the current situation, logistics is crucial to businesses and therefore our daily lives. With DB Schenker’s global network of contract logistics sites, we can offer the required flexibility in all key markets. Square meters usually used for dedicated customers, for example to cope with market fluctuations, are now transformed into temporary space opportunities – to support companies that urgently need additional capacity.”

Ajay Singh, CMD, SpiceJet, has said that they have been able to sail through the crisis owing to their cargo operations. “At SpiceJet, we tried to take a different path, wherein when there was no passenger traffic, we decided early on to use our aircraft for cargo business, which was our most significant reaction to this COVID crisis. In fact, in the last 2-3 months, we have emerged as India’s largest air cargo airline by a very long way. We carried close to 20,000 tonnes of cargo in the last 2 months and this includes flights we have done under Lifeline UDAN, all the medicines, medical equipment, and PPE kits that we got from different parts of the world into India. Also, outside, we sent medicines, fruits, vegetables and other things in support of our farming community and maritime community etc. Hence, we’ve tried to play a positive social role and we were trying to keep ourselves commercially afloat by expanding our cargo operations,” he said.

M. Ajit Kumar, Chairman, CBIC has launched the e-Office application in over 500 CGST and Customs offices across India. The e-Office application was launched remotely in the presence of over 800 senior officers of CBIC. Dr Neeta Verma, DG, National Informatics Centre, (NIC) was also present. Over 50,000 officers and staff will use this application making CBIC one of the largest Government departments to automate its internal office procedures. The CBIC expects e-Office would complement its other IT led reforms which are directly aimed at enhancing the ease of doing business for the trade and industry. The launch of e-Office is one more measure taken by the CBIC in leveraging technology for providing a ‘Faceless, Contactless and Paperless’ indirect Tax administration.

LATAM Cargo has expanded its pharma network by adding four new transit stations. The transit stations provide access to Puerto Rico, New Zealand, Ecuador and Paraguay and allow LATAM Cargo to offer more routes for different origins-destinations. Cristina Onate, Vice President – Marketing and Product Development, LATAM Cargo, says, “The goods we transport with our pharma solutions to Latin America are delicate and extremely sensitive to temperature deviations.” The carrier has opened pharma transit stations in Miami, Santiago, Buenos Aires and a second entry point in Sao Paulo over the last three months. This allows the carrier to expand the number of routes it can serve with its CEIV certified pharma service.

Dachser has announced that the company has invested in its location in Nuremberg, including expansion of transit terminals for industrial goods and food by over 5,200 m2. The company is investing EUR 22.5 million in the project, the construction phase of which was completed at the end of May. “Over the past ten years, our location in Nuremberg has seen positive development in the areas of industrial goods and food, as well as in warehousing. So much so that we have now reached the limits of our capacity with the existing facility,” says, Bernhard Engel, Branch Manager – European Logistics, Dachser’s Nuremberg. The company is creating extra parking spaces for trucks and employee vehicles, in addition to enlarging the office building by 1,200 m2.

In order to facilitate digital transformation of airlines, cargo.one and IBS Software has announced their strategic partnership. The two companies have been working together to create custom integrations for leading airlines, including Etihad Cargo and Nippon Cargo Airlines, to successfully help them accelerate their digital distribution capabilities. As COVID-19 forces airlines and forwarder sales teams to adapt to a new normal, cargo.one has reported a record increase in usage and demand. Moritz Claussen, Founder & Managing Director, cargo.one, says, “We see that COVID-19 has been a catalyst for digital transformation within the air cargo industry. This is reflected in the now over 1,500 forwarder branches using cargo.one on a daily basis. “Furthermore, we see that distributing capacity online at live rates is an essential part of the recovery roadmap for many airlines. Together with IBS Software we have been building a proven plug and play solution that empowers all IBS airlines to seamlessly integrate with cargo.one and get access to our ever-growing user base. It will allow airlines to boost sales online and almost instantly relieve overloaded sales staff.” Ashok Rajan, SVP & Head of Cargo & Logistics, IBS Software, says “We truly believe that leveraging online distribution is the way forward for airlines to emerge faster and stronger from the crisis and we are excited to enable these connections with innovation leader cargo.one and our state of the art technology.”