Aiming to optimise operations at its logistics hubs, Spoton Logistics has enhanced its technology platform with a state-of-the-art Warehouse Management System (WMS). The road express logistics company is currently implementing the national roll-out of the cloud-based WMS. With this enhancement, the company has been able to bring down the vehicle loading time by 20 per cent. Some of the other key benefits witnessed by the company with the implementation, include reduced shortage creation, accurate inventory tracking, enhanced space utilisation, improvement in productivity, visibility of pieces (shortage/ access), among others. Spoton’s customers stand to benefit with streamlined processes from order to delivery, accurately determined inventory, reduced picking errors, more realistic delivery dates, and enhanced overall customer service. Abhik Mitra, CEO, Spoton Logistics, states, “In the year 2020, we have channelized our resources to further strengthen our IT capabilities thereby ensuring smarter logistics operations. We believe that COVID-19 will continue to impact and complicate supply chains, but we haven’t and won’t let that be a roadblock in our continued growth. Moving ahead with the same vigor, we will continue to innovate and deliver value to our customers by unlocking frictions and helping them achieved better-than-anticipated business outcomes.” “Technology has been a key driver in our fast-paced growth. The induction of the state-of-the-art WMS has brought many changes, the biggest of them being the reduced vehicle loading time, helping us significantly increase productivity. With this implementation, we have also set the bedrock for the adoption of Automatic Guided Vehicles that we have started to implement in our logistics hubs with a view to reduce human effort and further increase productivity.”, added Uday Sharma, COO, Spoton Logistics. Spoton Logistics deftly prepared its people to operate in the new normal. Quite evidently, the comprehensive pre-planning, training, and awareness …

The October data of International Air Transport Association (IATA) for global airfreight markets shows that air cargo demand continued to improve but at a slower pace than the previous month and remains below previous year levels. Asia-Pacific airlines saw demand for international air cargo fall 11.6 per cent in October 2020 compared to the same month a year earlier. This was an improvement from the 14.6 per cent fall in September 2020 and the second consecutive month of improvement. International capacity remained constrained in the region, down 28.7 per cent. However, this was an improvement over the 31.8 per cent fall in capacity the previous month. The region’s airlines reported the highest international load factor indicating a solid appetite for air cargo services. Global demand, measured in cargo tonne-kilometers (CTKs*), was 6.2 per cent below previous-year levels in October (-7.5 per cent for international operations). This is an improvement from the 7.8 per cent year-on-year drop recorded in September. However, the pace of recovery in October was slower than in September with month-on-month demand growing 4.1 per cent (1.1 per cent for international). Global capacity, measured in available cargo tonne-kilometers (ACTKs), shrank by 22.6 per cent in October (‑24.8 per cent for international operations) compared to the previous year. Strong regional variations continue with North American and African carriers reporting year-on-year gains in demand (+6.2 per cent and +2.2 per cent respectively), while all other regions remained in negative territory compared to a year earlier. The improving performance is aligned with improvements in key economic indicators; The new export orders component of the manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) stayed above the 50-mark for the second month in a row. This a …

Commenting on if India has the infrastructure to move vaccine, Viraj Vohra, Director, Continental Carriers, says, “There is a big difference between routine freight forwarding and vaccine supply management. Vaccine supply is quite complex and requires a temperature-controlled atmosphere throughout the shipping process, starting from the manufacturing unit until the delivery point. We cannot afford to ignore vaccine freight. We need enough cold chain trucks, freighters and a good freight management scenario and expert handling of the same. Airlines should convert passenger planes to freighters to increase the freight capacity.” “Good numbers of cold chain trucks are required to fulfil the last-mile delivery of the vaccine. A number of the leading COVID-19 vaccines under development will need to be kept at temperatures as low as minus 80 degrees Celsius from the bottling stage till they are injected into patients. A good number of planes, trucks, warehouses and health centres will need to be outfitted with freezers. The erratic electric supply at the final point where the vaccination will be stored for the public will be another challenge. We just cannot ignore the risk factor and security concerns involved in logistics for the vaccines. Vaccine logistics would require special planning, secured loading and protection throughout its movement,” he adds.

In order to meet the safe and effective distribution of these vaccines around the world, Singapore Airlines (SIA), over the last few months, has been actively engaging various stakeholders across the supply chain and in pharmaceutical export markets. An internal COVID-19 task force was set up in May 2020 to ensure readiness across all aspects of cargo operations, and manage the crucial task of safely carrying these time- and temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical shipments. “We have been working hard to ensure that we are ready for one of the biggest and most important supply chain challenges of our generation the transportation and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines around the world,” says, Chin Yau Seng, Senior Vice President Cargo, Singapore Airlines. He adds, “We will continue to grow our pharmaceutical handling capability by investing in our THRUCOOL service and expanding our pharmaceutical quality corridor network. We are also working closely with our service partners to continuously improve pharmaceutical handling processes and capabilities across our network.” The carrier will make available cargo space on its flights and accord uplift priority to COVID- 19 vaccine shipments across the key vaccine trade lanes. This means readying the Boeing 747-400 freighters, as well as the passenger aircraft fleet which will be deployed on cargo operations to increase the capacity for vaccine transportation where needed. Leveraging its network connectivity, SIA Cargo carried about 22,000 tonnes of pharmaceutical shipments across its network coupled with SIA extensive network connectivity for the financial year ended March 2020. In order to strengthen its pharmaceutical transport product, SIA has been actively expanding its THRUCOOL1 quality corridor network, with the latest additions to the network being Brisbane and Melbourne in September this year. To build …

Freightwalla has partnered with Maersk to offer spot rates on its platform. The partnership will provide more transparency, reliability and assurance to import and export shipments. While providing end-to-end supply chain services to the larger EXIM fraternity, inaccuracy and un-reliability are the two significant challenges that are being solved by Freightwalla. The platform will give access to spot rates 24/7, provide accurate information and give assurance of loading on the allocated vessel. The spot rate integration with Freightwalla will allow shippers to search, secure competitive rates, and book container space instantly online, making it more reliable. Punit Java, Co-Founder & CTO Freightwalla, says, “The conventional booking process involved multiple steps with no guarantee of loading. Maersk’s spot rate integration enables our customers to see instant rates and see real-time availability of equipment, space, and surety of loading for their shipments. Given the challenges in today’s market with space, customers have a definitive advantage in their logistics planning. It will simplify the overall booking experience of exporters or importers.” Maersk introduced spot rates to reduce overbooking cycles while also providing a price and cargo loading assurance. Traditional freight forwarding has been a highly manual and inefficient process, and the shipping industry’s digital revolution has been long overdue. When it comes to the booking process, there are two major challenges associated with booking freight offline. First, the accuracy and reliability of the contracted rates are poor. There is a possibility of the vessel being overbooked and the customers facing unprecedented delays in shipping their cargo. Second, this unreliability makes clients perform multiple bookings with different liners in a bid to guarantee that their cargo will get a spot on at least one …

Jet Airways which went bankrupt in 2019 is expected to resume its domestic and international operations by summer 2021. The consortium led by Murari Lal Jalan and Kalrock Capital has announced the revival of the Indian airline Jet Airways as a full-service carrier. The release says, “If everything goes as per plan and the consortium receives the NCLT and regulatory approvals on time, Jet Airways would be back in the skies by the summer of 2021.” The consortium also plans to increase cargo services to include dedicated freighter service. “Given India’s position as a leading centre for global vaccine manufacture, cargo services have never been more required,” it says. As per the resolution plan, the Jet 2.0 program intends to operate all of its historic domestic slots in India and restart international operations. Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru will remain the Jet 2.0 hubs. The revival plan proposes to support Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities by creating sub-hubs in such cities. Manoj Narender Madnani, Board member, Jalan Kalrock Consortium says, “Jet Airways has been a brand with a glorious history of over 25 years, and it is the vision of the Consortium to put Jet Airways back in the skies at the earliest opportunity. We aim to re-energise the brand by infusing energy, warmth, and vibrancy into it while making it bigger and better. Over the years, the brand has created loyal customers and we wish to bring in freshness by adding value – an Indian brand with a global outlook, warm yet professional which symbolises the New India, Young India. With the revival of Jet Airways, it will restore the confidence among the Jet customers to fly again and …

Hyderabad Airport has announced that GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo (GHAC) is all set to provide the necessary infrastructure for unbroken cool-chain for the global vaccine shipments to maintain the vaccine integrity. The COVID-19 vaccines require specialised handling, hence the procedures are being developed in coordination with manufacturers and supply-chain players to mitigate any risk during the process of transportation of vaccines right from the manufacturers’ facility to the final destination. GHAC has a well-established Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) in place for acceptance, screening and handling of vaccines as per required temperature conditions. The Pharma zone of the terminal is a WHO-GSDP (World Health Organization – Good Storage and Distribution Practices) certified facility. As the vaccines are highly sensitive shipments, GHAC will leverage its efficiency in handling Pharma from last 12 years of operations to maintain unbroken cool- chain. The terminal offers one of India’s largest fleet of the modern temp-controlled Cool Containers viz. Envirotainer, VaQtec, etc. GHAC recently launched Cool Dolly- a mobile refrigeration unit for airside transportation of temperature sensitive Pharma and Vaccine shipments. Cool zones/containers have temperature data loggers and humidity sensors to ensure better monitoring and control while handling the sensitive vaccine shipments. GHAC terminal has a large sized Dual view tunnel X-ray Screening Machine to maintain the integrity of vaccines cool containers while screening. It is already handling various traditional vaccine shipments for global exports and imports. The GHAC Pharma Zone is well equipped in providing seamless processing of critical vaccines. Critical processes like – acceptance, weighing, customs examination, screening, palletization and transportation to aircraft are also performed under temperature-controlled conditions. As per the industry insights, most of India’s vaccine export will be to Africa, Latin …

TUI, Condor and SunClass Airlines has gone live on CargoAi. Pursuing its digitisation strategy for airfreight, CargoAi offers its users access to a variety of air transport solutions anywhere in the world. The company is increasing its offer to freight forwarders by making real-time prices and electronic bookings available on its platform for major leisure carriers; TUI, Condor and SunClass Airlines. This roll-out has been made possible because of the support of ECS Group, the GSSA of these airlines in Total Cargo Management. ‘These three airlines offer a multitude of destinations. Our users can now benefit from this by reserving their capacities on our platform in a few seconds’, says Matthieu Petot, CEO, CargoAi. For ECS Group, the approach also aims to provide a premium service to its airline customers and above all, to offer an additional sales tool for their cargo capacities. “Our customers need us to support them in new ways to maximise their income, and digitising the distribution processes is one of them. We therefore connect to all major e-booking platforms in the market to sell the cargo capacities of airlines under Total Cargo Management contract in a more efficient way’, explains Cédric Millet, Chief Strategy and Digital Officer, ECS Group. This is an important step for CargoAi, which is aiming for a ‘smooth, simple’ digitization of the industry. ‘We offer a turnkey service to our customers by doing all the technical work upstream, without the need for any investment on their part. These are the types of actions that will lead to a digitised industry, equal to its importance in the world economy’, says Peto.

Qatar Airways Cargo has announced to launch three times weekly Boeing 777-300 passenger freighters to Harstad-Narvik Airport (EVE) located in the Evenes Municipality of Northern Norway, starting December 14. The airport serves the towns of Harstad and Narvik in Nordland County. The freighter will depart on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, providing over 150 tonnes of cargo capacity for exporters from Northern Norway each week. Seafood and salmon will account for the majority of exports on these flights. There will also be 50 tonnes available every week for imports from the airline’s network into Harstad-Narvik Airport. Guillaume Halleux, Chief Officer Cargo, Qatar Airways, said, “In cooperation with NordicGSA, we are pleased to introduce cargo capacity and support Northern Norway’s seafood and salmon exporters who will benefit from direct connection to African, Asian and Middle East markets via Doha. Our state-of-the-art Climate Control Centre has dedicated storage areas for perishables transiting the hub while the use of reefer trucks ensures a seamless cool chain for all perishable shipments.” Stig Winther, CEO, Perishable Center Nord AS, said, “Perishable Center Nord AS is very pleased to cooperate with Qatar Airways Cargo. Operating more direct routes to and from the market will mean a lot for fresh seafood businesses from the North and quality, freshness and competitiveness will definitely improve. We are looking forward to start up, develop and together with Qatar Airways Cargo make seafood from Northern Norway more available globally.” Martin Langaas, Director Traffic Development and Cargo at Avinor, said, “Our partnership with Qatar Airways Cargo has been a true success story for Avinor and the Norwegian seafood industry. With the opening of a second gateway for seafood exports, the connectivity for Norway …

With a vision to improve intra-warehousing logistics and supply chain, Godrej Material Handling has announced the launch of MOPTro™, a product of Greendzine Technologies – a motorized order-picking trolley. This is a natural extension to Godrej’s existing product – SKUtro, a manual order-picking system, which was launched last year, to aid in improving shop floor mobility and employee productivity. The pandemic brought about many changes in the functioning of businesses with many city-working people moving back to their hometowns. This reverse migration pivoted e-commerce sales from tier-1 cities to tier-2 cities. Launched in 2019, SKUtro has been seeing a rise in demand from e-commerce, retail and pharmaceutical companies especially over the past few months. Factors such as the past few months of lockdown, the subsequent pent up demand and seasonal festive sales are pushing companies like Godrej to partner on solutions that ensure speedy and accurate order-picking thereby achieving higher throughput. This also ensures that the warehouse employees reap benefits such as better health, safety, and wellness. MOPTro™ revolutionises the everyday manual order-picking practices by simplifying the tedious manual picking process for operators, ensuring accurate picking and put-away. The software on the mobile device attached to MOPTro™ helps in showing the fastest aisle route to picking a product thus enabling greater throughput. According to statistics released in the public domain by research organizations on the recent sales by Amazon and Flipkart, 91% of Amazon’s and 65% of Flipkart’s new customers came from smaller cities. Therefore, in order to fulfil such high demand, timely picking solutions are of high importance. India is a relatively young nation with a large slice of the population being sub 35 years in age. They like to try new experiences …