With a recent collaboration, India’s leading electric scooter company Hero Electric and Gurugram-based last mile mobility solutions start-up BattWheelz have joined forces to electrify last mile deliveries. BattWheelz offers mobility solutions to e-commerce and hyperlocal grocery companies and with this collaboration, it plans to deploy nearly 4,000 electric two-wheelers by FY23. “Our constant endeavour is to hasten the electric mobility transition in India and thrusting the same through our B2B partnerships with complete EV solutions across India. This partnership highlights our shared vision of offering eco-friendly mobility solutions and the direct advantage of adopting electric mobility in terms of savings and contribution to safeguarding the environment.” said Sohinder Gill, CEO, Hero Electric.

Etihad Airways and Henan Province Airport Group, the parent company of the Zhengzhou Xinzheng Airport (CGO) — an important domestic aviation hub and the gateway to the central region of China — aim to establish a strategic partnership to strengthen aviation ties between the UAE and China. This follows the signing of a virtual Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) during the virtual “Zhengzhou Week” event hosted by Expo 2020 Dubai China Pavilion starting from 27 December 2021. The MOU contains plans for Etihad’s potential operation of regular cargo services between Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH) and Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport (CGO) to create the “Air Silk Road” between Henan Province and the emirate of Abu Dhabi. The MOU also covers scope of cooperation between the two parties to build the CGO airport into an air freight hub in the region, and to diversify product sales and cargo distribution channels at Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport.

Air New Zealand aims to deploy zero-emissions aircraft in the next five years. The airline has released a Zero Emissions Aircraft Product Requirements Document that details Air New Zealand’s specifications and requirements for a new generation of aircraft. Air New Zealand said it “is seeking long term partnerships with aircraft developers looking to develop zero emissions aircraft. From the PRD process Air New Zealand is seeking to gain an understanding from the aircraft developers of the realistic implementation timeline and technology feasibility to enable long term fleet strategy evaluation”. The overall goal is for zero-emissions aircraft to be deployed in the next five years, with battery electric propulsion, hybrid electric propulsion and green hydrogen propulsion being considered. Air New Zealand’s decarbonisation roadmap identifies four main levers needed to reach net zero by 2050. These are the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF); the operation of zero emissions aircraft; continued investment in the modern fleet replacement programme; and improvements in operational efficiencies (such as through optimised flight planning).

The Delhi government is asking e-commerce companies, food delivery services and cab aggregators to completely switch to electric vehicles as it aims to increase the EV share in total vehicle sales to 25 percent by 2024 to check air pollution, according to officials. It is also going to ask dealers and petrol pumps to not give fuel to vehicles without a pollution-under-check (PUC) certificate. Vehicle emissions account for around 40 percent of the city’s air pollution. “The government is going to take two major steps to check vehicular pollution – we will ask all aggregators including Zomato, Swiggy, Ola, Uber, etc. to completely switch to electric vehicles. These services account for 30 percent of the registered vehicles in Delhi,” said an official. “We are also considering directing dealers and petrol pumps not to supply fuel to vehicles without a (valid) PUC certificate,” he said. Directions under the Environment (Protection) Act in this regard are expected to be issued this week.

National Highways and Logistics Management Ltd (NHLML), a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) fully owns, plans to award 15 more contracts on multimodal logistics parks over the next three years in public-private partnership (PPP) mode. The parks will have a 50:50 funding model. “There are 35 multimodal logistics parks planned across the country with a capital allocation of Rs 50,000 crore. Tenders are being issued for Chennai, Bengaluru, Indore, and Nagpur this fiscal year. The Jogigopha logistics park in Assam has started construction (this is over and above the 15 to be awarded),” Prakash Gaur, chief executive officer (CEO), NHLML, said. The SPV, formed under the guidance of the road ministry, aims to address typical cost overruns with infrastructure projects. Cost overruns happen because of the time lag between awards of projects and their commencement. This logistics project is part of the Rs 7-trillion mega infrastructure project launched this month.

DHL Global Forwarding announces a collaboration with Mumbai International Airport Ltd. (MIAL) and Kale Logistics for the pilot rollout of D-Cube for paperless and contactless import operations. Soon MIAL will not require hard copies of MAWBs (Master airway bill) and HAWBs (House airway bill) to be submitted by DHL Global Forwarding, said Niki Frank, CEO South Asia and India, DHL Global Forwarding in a Linkedin post. This digital initiative facilitates ease of business to support all forwarders, customs brokers, transporters and customers, on the air import businesswith a ‘contactless’ and ‘paperless’ process, fast-tracking the deliverables factoring safety and security. The post read that queues at the Air Cargo Terminal will become a thing of the past with Digitalized Gate Passes to shortly be introduced. Being a major air cargo player at the Mumbai Terminal, DHL Global Forwarding volunteered to support this progressive initiative and played a significant role in its implementation. A well-aligned move to DPDHL’s own digitalization mission.

FedEx is predicting that next year air cargo capacity will once again be hard to secure with space remaining scarce and supply chain issues supporting strong demand. Karen Reddington, president of FedEx Express Europe, explained that passenger networks – and therefore bellyhold services – were taking time to resume and this would put cargo capacity under pressure. She said, “The pandemic has undoubtedly brought supply chain resilience to the fore. With a new, highly contagious Covid-19 variant, reduced port and air cargo capacity and heightened consumer demand, it will continue to impact global trade well into 2022. As passenger travel remains depleted, air cargo capacity will be constrained through 2022 all while the demand for goods is likely to grow, with 2021 trading volumes overtaking pre-pandemic levels and achieving their fastest year of growth in over a decade.”

Ethiopian Airlines has received IATA’s Center of Excellence for Independent Validators in Pharmaceutical Logistics (CEIV Pharma) certification as an airline and for ground handling. The airline said it is the first airline in Africa to receive the CEIV pharma certification. The milestone is anticipated to aid it in providing efficient & effective transportation of pharmaceuticals throughout its global pharma network. Ethiopian, in recent years, has invested heavily in infrastructure, equipment, people, system and processes to enhance its pharmaceutical core handling capabilities throughout its pharma network. Cold storage areas in these freight facilities are dedicated to the handling of pharmaceuticals & healthcare products and equipped with dedicated climate control ranging between -30OC to +25OC. These facilities are monitored through a smart web-based system that allows real-time management of all zones and is capable of triggering SMS, phone call & email actions in case of an emergency.

The Indian Railways has decided to forgo close to Rs 700 crore a year that it collects from companies running freight businesses on its network. Under a new cargo policy, which came into effect on December 15, owners of private sidings, or short railway tracks, and private freight stations — about 1,200 in total— will no longer have to pay land licensing fees for using railway tracks that connect their private sites to the nearest rail line. The cargo policy was rolled out after the railway board had approved a 76-page document titled Gati-Shakti Multimodal Cargo Terminal (GCT) policy on the premise that the national transporter will now focus more on leveraging its land resources rather than simply earning some money out of it, according to an officer close to the development. So, the decision to forgo a sizable fixed earning, that too at a time when the pandemic has eroded its revenue base, is based on a risky calculation that such a waiver will woo more private players into cargo terminal businesses, which in turn will augment the Railways’ freight movement and revenue. And that will not only offset the losses to be incurred due to the waiver, but will fetch more profit.

Sampark India logistics, an independent leading services provider evolving the interplay of infrastructure, technology, trained manpower and transportation facilities. Recently, Sampark India was a logistics partner for the Filmfare OTT awards 2021 wherein the legends of Bollywood got together with the leader of the Logistics industry. The company is ramping up its efforts to enter the new target market with plan to diversifying its revenue streams with higher standards of excellence ensured at each level. By focusing on the need of the hour the company provides unparelled logistics services at the global level. We at Sampark consider the good management of logistics as vital and provide fast, reliable, on demand industry solutions with its leading-edge networks. Sampark offers a complete range of end–to-end Supply Chain capability from manufacturer to end customer. We always try to satisfy customer’s requirement with Cost Effectiveness & limited time frame.