Category Archives: Technology

Viraj Vohra is the Director of Continental Group, a global supply chain management company. He has consistently maintained an innovative approach to the company’s growth, being persistent, devoted, and meticulous, as well as a dedicated and enthusiastic leader. He has directed the group’s expansion into numerous areas by taking an innovative approach to business and people. Vohra, an international business leader, has been instrumental in forging significant alliances with partners from over 60 countries and increasing the group’s global reach. He has extensive experience collaborating with global leaders of supply chain organisations from around the world. Vohra completed the Port of Antwerp’s Certified PA3 Experiential Training Programme for Breakbulk Handling and Port Operations, which assisted the group’s diversification initiatives.

The India Cargo Awards will commence tonight. The event will be commemorated by celebrating true leaders and recognising their hard work, passion, and dedication to the cargo industry. The event will be attended by Amrit Lal Meena, Special Secretary (Logistics), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Department of Commerce, Government of India, as the Chief Guest, and Piyush Shrivastava, IES, Sr. Economic Advisor for the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India, as the Guest of Honour.

Ecom Express Limited announced that it has been certified as a Great Place to Work from March 2022 to March 2023. The company has been recognised for its efforts in building a high-trust, high-performance culture. The certification is a validation of all the varied efforts of Ecom Express that are channeled in the right direction to create an exceptional working environment and promote a culture that supports employee well-being, safety, and learning. Over the last nine years, Ecom Express has built its diverse and inclusive, talent-focused culture with care and trust for its employees. They are valued and nurtured, making them highly productive and result-oriented. As an organisation with 60,000+ employees (on roll and off roll), Ecom Express truly believes in the voice of its people getting heard, acknowledged, and actioned upon to enhance employee experiences and empower them to achieve their business goals.

Qatar Airways Cargo and WiseTech Global launched a direct e-booking solution between their global operating systems. The e-booking connection between WiseTech’s flagship CargoWise platform and Qatar Airways Cargo management system, CROAMIS, enables freight forwarders using CargoWise to choose their flights and confirm a booking with Qatar Airways Cargo in real-time, without having to leave the platform. Similarly, existing bookings made via the solution can be modified. Guillaume Halleux, Chief Officer of Cargo at Qatar Airways Cargo commented, “Our continued collaboration with WiseTech Global is focused on providing our mutual customers with an enhanced experience, and supporting them with improved visibility, efficiency, and value. With our operational data exchange with CargoWise seeing positive results, this was a natural next step in the partnership. Our digitalisation strategy remains centred on moving to robust systems, automatic quotations, real-time integrations, and improved reporting. These have become critical in an industry that is moving rapidly towards digital solutions.”

After a gap of two years, the air cargo fraternity got a chance to gather and meet and greet at an event organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Delhi yesterday, focusing on the government’s visionary Gati Shakti Master Plan and the importance of air cargo sustainability for future growth. The event began with a welcome remark by Vipin Vohra, Chair, PHD Civil Aviation Committee, followed by highly visionary and impactful speeches by Sudhendu J Sinha, Adviser Infrastructure, Connectivity, Transport, and Electric Mobility, Niti Aayog; Pradeep Multani, President PHDCCI; and a special address by Guest of Honours Amrit Lal Meena, IAS, Special Secretary, Logistics Division, DPIIT; and Piyush Srivastava, Sr. Economic Advisor, MoCA. The event was a success as it saw great participation from industry leaders – freight forwarders, customs brokers, airlines, and airports from across the country – discussing extensively future growth, emerging trends, sustainability initiatives, growth strategies, innovation, and digitalisation. The event ended on a good note with an hour-long networking session and lunch. 

Logistics startup Bigblue, has announced a $15 million Series A round, Tech Funding. Founded in 2018, the Paris-based company’s services include giving retailers full control over packaging, branding and customer communications, as per the reports. With the new funding, it plans to hire more people for its sales; marketing and operations staff, along with tripling its engineering staff. According to the reports, co-founder, Tim Dumain said the company has “a lot of new customers in France, but now we’re expanding in Europe.” “We opened our services to Spain a few weeks ago and will soon open the U.K. in a couple of months for customers shipping products there,” he continued. “We plan to expand in five big countries in the European e-commerce market, including Germany and Italy.” Dumain added that Bigblue’s main goal is to “make it easy for brands to grow online.” “With this new round, we will support scaling service offerings for Bigblue’s growing base of online merchants, fuel hiring efforts, and continue to position the company as the leader in the D2C direct-to-consumer fulfilment space,” he added. The round was led by Runa Capital and LPV was the second lead investor.

Customers of Lufthansa Cargo will now benefit from an optimised booking process on the cargo.one platform: Shippers can now have the air waybill number required for booking assigned to them digitally and fully automatically. This eliminates the need for time-consuming manual management of air waybill inventories and numbers. Lufthansa Cargo is the exclusive launch partner for this new, digital and free feature at cargo.one, which is available for all Lufthansa Cargo capacities that can be booked there. The air cargo airline plans to offer automated air waybill number assignment for customer bookings on its own website in the second quarter as well. “We are pleased that we will be able to offer our customers a more efficient booking process and an improved customer experience in the future,” said Ashwin Bhat, Chief Commercial Officer at Lufthansa Cargo. “The fact that we are the first airfreight airline to jointly launch the process of automated air waybill number assignment with cargo.one shows once again that Lufthansa Cargo is playing a pioneering role in the digitalization of the entire industry. “Excellent customer orientation and modern digital distribution are our top priorities.” As of today, forwarders who use cargo.one to book shipments with Lufthansa Cargo can book immediately without having to enter a valid AWB number first. Using a “Book now” button, the customer selects any Lufthansa Cargo offer and is then assigned a valid AWB number with the booking confirmation. The advantages of automated AWB assignment are obvious: the booking process runs much faster, is less error-prone, and much more user-friendly. However, customers who still wish to enter an AWB number manually can continue to do so. In addition, Lufthansa Cargo is working on …

EV Cargo has acquired Netherlands-headquartered Fast Forward Freight in a move that will more than double the firm’s annual airfreight volumes, says the release. The company, owned by Hong Kong-based private equity firm EmergeVest, said that the acquisition is part of its previously announced corporate strategy to expand its worldwide footprint and grow its freight forwarding and supply chain services business. As part of the transaction, EV Cargo has become the sole shareholder of Fast Forward Freight (and its trading subsidiaries), with the current owners of Fast Forward Freight becoming shareholders of EV Cargo. The deal adds more than $170m of revenue to EV Cargo, resulting in pro forma combined revenue of approximately $1.7bn, and grows EV Cargo’s employees to more than 2,600 globally, tripling its European workforce to more than 400 people. In terms of airfreight, the move will more than double EV Cargo’s volumes to over 100,000 tonnes. In terms of locations, EV Cargo will “significantly” increase its presence in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, and UK, as well as expand into Greece and Switzerland. Fast Forward Freight will be rebranded as EV Cargo and operations will merge. Heath Zarin, Founder and Chief Executive of EV Cargo, said in a statement, “Fast Forward Freight shares our commitment to providing innovative technology-enabled solutions and has a strong history of providing supply chain control towers to its customer base of world-leading brands. This transaction helps us grow the EV Cargo global network by adding excellent colleagues, capabilities, and customers.” Fast Forward Freight founder and chief executive, Marc Terpstra, added, “EV Cargo is focused on providing an innovative technology platform, blending proprietary and industry leading technology based on a deep understanding …

The global integrated logistics service provider, cargo-partner, plans to expand its network across Western India by opening a new office in Pune. The logistics giant opened its offices in Vadodara and Indore in the last quarter of 2021. This takes cargo-partner’s total network strength to a total of 14 offices across India. While the company has now been present for over 15 years in the Indian market, the management believes that today’s logistics landscape requires a more decentralised approach as the cargo-partner needs to be where the customers need the company to be. “We take it personally. We intend to move closer to our customers and become faster in implementing our solutions. This is important in these challenging times with freight rates continuously rising and space in carriers coming at a premium,” said Rajesh Mallah, Regional Head – West, in an official statement. cargo-partner has dedicated a budget of more than a million EUR specifically to invest in and grow its presence in the Indian market. A sizeable share will be invested in creating new jobs and further developing the teams. cargo-partner plans to grow its workforce by an additional 50%, inviting skilled talent that wants to be part of the tech-driven vision. cargo-partner’s expansion plans are driven by the management’s confidence in providing excellent services to both existing and new customers whose demand is constantly growing. In line with the company’s vision of digitalisation and being future-ready to cater to our customers’ needs, cargo-partner is currently in transition to revamp and upgrade its systems across operations, sales, and human resources. cargo-partner with around 4 decades of experience in specialised warehousing services, has been at the forefront of delivering customised …

The Federation of Freight Forwarders’ Associations in India (FFFAI) and the National Association of Freight & Logistics (NAFL) based in Dubai, UAE signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the objective of the recording and forming the basis of understanding between the said associations to strengthen, promote, and develop co-operation on the basis of equality and mutual benefits. The agreement was formally signed by Shankar Shinde, Chairman, FFFAI, and Nadia Abdul Aziz, President, NAFL. As per the MoU, key areas of work jointly by FFFAI and NAFL are as follows: a) Trade Support, b) Technology Exchange, c) Women’s Participation, d) Youth Promotion, e) Member Support Safety, f) Skill Development and Training, g) Business Opportunities, and h) Any other areas of cooperation. The cooperation would also extend to identifying and recommending members to securely do business and safeguarding/protecting them by providing services and support pertaining to payment reliability. “In view of the fact that there is a trend of increasing trade between India and the UAE and Dubai being one of the strategic hubs of logistics operations, the MoU is very significant. Both FFFAI and NAFL are playing catalysing roles in trade facilitation in their respective countries, i.e., India and UAE. The MoU would further explore new areas for win-win benefits for the members of both the associations in terms of business expansion and enhancement of skills,” shared Shinde. With the recent signing of the India-UAE FTA, the trade between India and the UAE is expected to touch USD 100 billion in the next 5 years, with most Indian items now duty-free in the UAE. FFFAI is the apex body and the sole representative of 28 member associations from all over …