Emirates SkyCargo has become the first airline cargo carrier in the world to have transported more than 50 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines on its flights. The carrier has also transported more than 100 tonnes of syringes across the world to support the delivery of vaccines. Since the start of international distribution late last year, Emirates SkyCargo has transported over 220 tonnes of COVID-19 vaccines, equivalent to more than 50 million doses, on more than 150 flights from manufacturing locations to 50 destinations on its network through Dubai. Overall, the carrier has transported six different kinds of COVD-19 vaccines. Nabil Sultan, Emirates Divisional Senior Vice President, Cargo, said, “As a socially responsible global air cargo carrier, our actions over the last year have always been directed at helping communities across the world, and especially those in developing nations, recover from the devastating impact of the pandemic. We have been leading the global air cargo industry’s efforts and working with our partner organisations in Dubai to rapidly distribute COVID-19 vaccines through Dubai to the rest of the world.” Emirates SkyCargo has remained agile and dynamic throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, responding quickly to maintain international connectivity for essential goods across the world. The carrier was one of the first in the world to deploy passenger aircraft for cargo only flights in order to transport PPE, medical equipment, pharmaceuticals and food. Over one year, Emirates SkyCargo had operated more than 27,800 flights and transported over 100,000 tonnes of essential commodities.

On account of the nationwide lockdown, the Indian logistics sector has witnessed a significant sequential recovery after experiencing severe disruption in Q1 FY2021. This had created demand-side and supply-side challenges which eased in subsequent months as economic activity recovered. As per ICRA note, as lockdown-related restrictions eased and economic activity revived, the freight availability for logistics players also improved. Accordingly, many of the logistics companies reverted to pre-pandemic levels by end of Q2 FY2021 and started reporting Y-o-Y growth from Q3 FY2021, the same has continued into Q4 FY2021 as well. Freight rates also remained firm during this period. According to Rohan Kanwar Gupta, Assistant Vice President & Sector Head, ICRA Ratings, “As the economy opened up and industrial, manufacturing, construction and consumption activities picked up pace, freight availability also improved, aiding recovery in the sector. Freight rates also held up in this period. As such, the pace of revenue contraction mellowed down significantly in Q2 FY2021, and reverted to growth trajectory in Q3 FY2021. This trend was also visible in E-way bill volumes, which reached pre-pandemic levels in September 2020 and posted Y-o-Y growth in all subsequent months. While freight volumes in Q3 FY2021 were supported by the historically strong festive period, the sector sustained its volume growth even after the season ended, giving comfort regarding the sustainability of the recovery.” The recovery has also been visible across other modes of transportation as well. The rail freight traffic reported similar trends, reporting Y-o-Y growth of 5% and 10% in Q2 FY2021 and Q3 FY2021 respectively. The volumes thereafter have also held up, touching peak freight volumes in January 2021, resulting in 7% Y-o-Y growth during the fourth quarter so …

cargo.one has entered into a letter of intent with Air Canada, through its cargo division Air Canada Cargo, to offer its capacity on cargo.one’s leading air cargo booking platform. Upon conclusion of a definitive agreement, freight forwarders will soon have access to a first-class booking experience with real-time capacity and quotes. The airline is poised to become the first North American airline on the cargo.one ebooking platform. “We are delighted to double down on our global expansion strategy and look forward to welcoming Air Canada Cargo on board as a first mover in the North American region. Air Canada Cargo’s constant drive for innovation and technology to offer customers the best possible service is very much in line with cargo.one’s values and strategy,” stated Moritz Claussen, Co-Founder and Managing Director, cargo.one. “Given the current capacity constraints out of Europe to North America, cargo.one’s growing user base will now have additional real-time access to much sought-after space at the click of a button.“ Jason Berry, Vice President Cargo at Air Canada, said, “An association with cargo.one will enable us to deliver on our customer promise of providing easy and reliable booking access to our growing capacities and help us to further develop our digital distribution capabilities. A concluded definitive agreement will support Air Canada Cargo’s rapid cargo network expansion, increase its day-to-day efficiency, while at the same time offering customers an outstanding service quality and seamless online access to attractive connections to and from Europe, Latin America, the US and Asia-Pacific.” cargo.one and Air Canada Cargo have kicked off their integration phase. Subject to the conclusion of a definitive agreement which is planned to be finalised by April 30, Europe to …

Aggressively expanding its network to extend the reach in every nook and corner of India, Shree Maruti Courier Services is planning to add 2,000 cities and towns of the country in their network and aiming to achieve Rs 1,000 crore turnover in the next five years. At present, the company has a nationwide network of over 2,650 outlets and round the clock working at 89 regional offices across India. The company has a presence in 868 cities & towns and serving to 4,600 pincodes. Elaborating the details on the plan, Ajay Mokariya, Managing Director, Shree Maruti Courier Services, said, “Despite challenging business environment, we are witnessing an increasingly strong demand across the markets. With the aggressive expansion plan, we are aiming to add additional 7,500 unique pin codes across the country. The company has added new products/verticals of surface cargo and upgraded international segment by opening up six new gateways recently. The same will ensure to achieve a target of Rs 1,000 crore turnover in next five years. Keeping in mind Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ mission, we are proud to contribute to India’s growth story and aiming to generate 10,000 employment opportunities with this expansion”.

In its new Whitepaper, ‘The Ultimate B2B E-commerce Guide: Tradition is out. Digital is in’, DHL Expres predicts strong growth for the B2B e commerce market in the coming years. 80 per cent of all B2B sales interactions between suppliers and professional buyers will take place in digital channels by 2025. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the pace of digitalisation and the purchasing behaviour of technology-savvy millennials, who are now of an age to be the professional B2B decision-makers, are the main drivers of this global e-commerce growth. What is predicted for the future of the B2B sector, has already been visible in the significant B2C e-commerce rise over the last years, where DHL Express experienced high growth rates particularly during the holiday peak seasons (e.g. Easter, Christmas) and mega shopping days (e. g. Black Friday, Cyber Monday). In total the B2C E commerce volumes within the DHL Express network increased in 2020 by approximately 40 per cent, compared to 2019. This positive business development is also reflected in the FY2020 financial results of the company: With a total revenue of €19.1 billion (+11.9 per cent year-on-year) and EBIT of €2.7 billion (+34.9 per cent) the Express division of Deutsche Post DHL Group closed 2020 with the best result in its more than 50 years history. “Even in times of worldwide shutdowns, globalisation has shown its resilience, fuelled by digitalisation and the power of global trade”, says John Pearson, CEO of DHL Express. “These trends have led to an ever growing number of consumers to shift their shopping activities online. The pandemic has accelerated this development like never before, with a sharp rise in businesses selling their goods …

In an industry-first move, Welspun One Logistics Parks has introduced a unique, online ‘Partner Portal’ to effectively collaborate with their external stakeholders, especially landowners and brokers. The goal of this platform is to create a transparent and efficient mechanism that will enable sharing of leads and create a direct communication channel with Welspun One’s land buying and leasing teams. Presently, the process of lead generation in the warehousing and logistics sector is confined to traditional modes of communication. The introduction of an online and integrated platform is a major step forward by Welspun One to bring about digitisation in the industry, and is in line with initiatives like ‘Digital India’ where there is an increasing emphasis on creating online infrastructure. Elaborating on this unique feature, Anshul Singhal, Managing Director, Welspun One Logistics Parks, said, “High internet penetration and adoption of technology has accelerated digitisation across verticals. The industry needs a seamless platform to eliminate outdated and lengthy processes involved in land and leasing transactions. With our distinctive, tech-enabled offering – the ‘Partner Portal’, we aim to build a high level of transparency, seamless communication, and timely updates through a single, online channel.” He added, “All the leads fed into the channel are evaluated under a CRM that allows us to sort deals faster and help focus the efforts of the real rainmakers of the industry, our broker community.” The feature can be availed by landowners, brokers, customers and International Property Consultants (IPCs) by simply registering on the company website’s Partner Portal section. The registrant is then provided with unique credentials that allows access to a specific dashboard and enables them to introduce new leads for land transactions and/or for fulfilling …

In view of tremendous potential of cross border trade between Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN) Shankar Shinde, Chairman Elect, the Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations in India (FFFAI) has recommended for seamless multimodal connectivity and strong logistics infrastructure in each of the above countries. Speaking at a webinar on ‘UN TIR System and its benefits of expansion to Bangladesh and other BBIN countries’, which was organised by FICCI in association with IRU Geneva, ICC Bangladesh and FFFAI, Shinde observed that accession to TIR Carnet would be immensely beneficial for the hassle-free cross border trade in this region. It would be pertinent to mention that FFFAI is one of the associates of TIR Carnet and have been working with the Government of India for International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC) project, under TIR Carnet. He also emphasised on well-defined policies to be framed up by the respective governments and well-trained officers including Customs and allied agencies engaged at the border check posts. Based on the INSTC route experience, where FFFAI had launched a trial run of containers, Shinde stated that point to point vehicle movement would be the pragmatic solution instead of re-working of unloading and reloading transshipment, to save cost and reduce dwell time. Accordingly, accession to TIR would expedite the process in this regard. He, however, highlighted various other challenges as regard to cross border cargo transportation, as witnessed in INSTC route. Shinde further suggested that the governments will have to provide more impetus on private logistics companies, NVOCC or multimodal logistics operators’ participation in the BBIN project and also important would be to create a BBIN website portal with complete information for trade participation and addressing issues. …

Pluss Advanced Technologies (PLUSS) has been granted a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for its Celsure™ box which is designed using Phase Change Material (PCM) technology to maintain specific inside-temperature. The Celsure™ box is a simple box-in-box transport solution with over 40 variants to maintain different inside-temperatures, ranging from -77C to +89C, for times ranging for a few hours to a few days. The Celsure™ box serves as a better and safer alternative to dry ice and conventional ice-packs and has reduced costs and complexities in transport and storage of perishables, vaccines and temperature sensitive pharmaceutical products. The patent was granted to the innovative method of arranging PCMs, which leads to precise inside-temperature control, under varying ambient conditions. The company has received a patent for Celsure™ from the European Patent Office in Germany also, and has applied for a patent in India, Singapore, and Brazil, as well. “PLUSS was formed to innovate on speciality polymers, to address India’s industrial and social and environmental challenges. With our genesis in research, we have been able to develop unique low-cost solutions for temperature control, using the concept of thermal energy storage. Our solutions have been adopted commercially, and the US Patent is a testimony to the robust technology being used for operational and cost efficiency in transporting temperature sensitive cargo,” said Samit Jain, Managing Director, PLUSS Advanced Technologies.

Recognising the importance of developing air cargo supply chains to handle and transport pharmaceuticals, especially for the last-mile delivery, in humanitarian contexts or in crisis situations, Pharma.Aero and Humanitarian Logistics Association (HLA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). This collaboration will not only underline common interests between the two organisations, but also enable both organisations to combine forces in strategic projects that will improve quality in global air cargo industry, with a focus on crisis-prone countries, as well as emergencies and humanitarian projects. Jeremy Mitchell, Director, Pharma.Aero stresses the importance of this new collaboration, “By joining forces with HLA, we bring the human interest aspect into the Pharma.Aero network and platform. This will create more leverage and added value in all our undertakings as well as broaden our scope and impact when reaching out to the entire pharmaceutical air cargo supply chain.” “HLA aims to increase understanding and forge alliances between aid organisations, the private, public and academic sectors” adds George Fenton, Chief Executive, HLA, “The newly formed partnership with Pharma.Aero will enable us to add significant value to our network and gear up the effectiveness and efficiency of members by raising awareness of standards, facilitating access to training and career development opportunities, and encourage collaboration among a broader range of humanitarian logisticians.” Trevor Caswell, Vice Chairman Pharma.Aero and responsible for Projects, points out that “Both organisations share the same vision; being a neutral platform of international best-practice and knowledge sharing, and fostering community collaboration by trust. In setting up joint projects that emphasize the growing importance – both for the rapidly changing aid system as well as for the supply chain – of ‘local actors’ and ‘last mile’, …

Air Cargo Belgium and Brussels Airport Company’s dedicated Covid-19 vaccine taskforce, BRUcure has launched readiness label. This label can be used by companies in the taskforce and indicates that a company is fully ready to transport, handle or store the Covid-19 vaccine. Furthermore, the label strengthens the image of the taskforce company that is using the label. To obtain the label, acompany should have dedicated pharma storage if it needs to store the vaccine. There is approximately 30,000 square metres of cold pharma storage at BRUcargo and it seems to increase as some companies are extending their capacity. The companies who obtained the label also follow the BRUcure Guideline Document on top of the existing Pharma Handling SOP’s and apply the guidelines that Air Cargo Belgium has created where applicable. The companies use the Airside Pharma Transporter (APT) in procedure. It aims to guarantee there is no temperature deviation for the Covid-19 vaccine shipments. The companies intend to implement the digital platform called CargoFlow Explorer. It is a digital solution developed by Nallian (invested by BAC) in order to get a full visibility for all pharma shipments. Currently, 15 companies within the BRUcure Taskforce have already obtained the label such as Aviapartner Cargo, Bolloré Logistics, DHL Global Forwarding, Dnata, EFL Global, Expeditors, FB Logistics, Hazgo, Kuehne + Nagel, Lufthansa Cargo (Lufthansa, Brussels Airlines, Austrian Airlines), Singapore Airlines, Swissport Cargo Services, TUI, United Airlines, and WFS.