Cargotalk

CargotalkSOUTH ASIA’S LEADING CARGO MONTHLY

No.1 in Circulation & ReadershipMARCH 2013

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PLUS

IATA

When will India be ready?

h ill Indiae-freight

Million Minds and CILT Awards

SHIPPINGLINE AGENTS RECOMMEND FAST CLEARANCE AT ICDs AND PORTS

Budget 2013 Expectations

Industry status urged

WWW.CARGOTALK.IN MARCH 2013 I CARGOTALK I 3

National NewsSuccess & Achievements

Cargotalk’s Ratan Paul felicitated at ‘Logistics Achievers Award & Talent Hunt, 2013’

With an aim to improve the image and to supply skilled manpower for the logistics industry in India, Million

Minds and CILT organised the second edition of their national event ‘Logistics Achievers Award and Talent Hunt, 2013’ on February 9 in New Delhi. At this event, several students from various management and training institutes and logistics industry professionals were honoured with cash prizes, certificates and awards. Ratan Paul, Sr. Asstt. Editor, Cargotalk was felicitated with ‘Logistics Journalist of the Year’ award by the jury consists of industry experts and professionals. Considering the fact that there is a huge gap between demand and supply of skilled manpower for logistics sector, this pioneering initiative is expected to yield remarkable results for the benefit of the entire logistics industry in the days to come.

ith i t i the

WWW.CARGOTALK.IN4 I CARGOTALK I MARCH 2013

CargotalkSOUTH ASIA’S LEADING CARGO MONTHLY

No.1 in Circulation & Readership

MARCH 2013Postal Reg. No.: DL (ND)-11/6002/2013-14-15. WPP No.: U (C)-272/2010-12,

for posting on 25th-26th of advance month at New Delhi P.S.O.

RNI No.: DELENG/2003/10642

Date of Publication: 22/2/2013

Vol XIII No.4

Pages 60

Rupees 50

cargotalk.in

By DDP Publications

PLUS

IATA

When will India

be ready?

IATA

Wh will Indiae-freight Million Minds

and CILT Awards

SHIPPINGLINE AGENTS RECOMMEND FAST CLEARANCE AT ICDs AND PORTS

Budget 2013 Expectations

Industry status urged

editorial

SanJeetEditor

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EditorSANJEET

Sr. Assistant EditorRATAN KUMAR PAUL

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Cargotalk

The ongoing IATA e-freight exercises have two sides. On the one hand, IATA has huge

projection about the benefits of e-freight practices and on the other hand, there are some gray areas about tangible benefits for the freight forwarders/air cargo agents.

According to IATA, e-freight allows to lower costs by eliminating paper handling and processing costs; speed-up services by reducing cycle time of an average of 24 hours; improve reliability and accuracy through one-time electronic data entry at a point of origin; gain visibility as electronic documentations allow for online track and trace functionality. It also facilitates Advance Electronic Information (AEI) requirements for security purpose. Meanwhile, the air cargo industry in India is gearing up to implement e-freight. Some airlines have already decided to exercise e-freight practices. Freight forwarders community too, has created a technology platform called UPLIFT in this regard. The Government of India has signed the ICAO protocol MC99. India Customs has an e-commerce platform called ICEGATE, which allows electronic filing of import & export documents, though it still requires the submission of paper Customs Declarations and paper Support Documents!

Nevertheless, Indian freight forwarders are in quandary regarding the actual benefits. Since (as many agents feel) e-freight is not a standalone option and unless all stakeholders of the supply chain are linked by a common user facility, it would be difficult for them to harness benefits. It should also be mentioned that in India, in spite of 15 years of customs EDI initiatives, the entire process is still in a rudimentary stage and depended on paper declarations. Certifications have also not been brought down.

There has to be forwarders-related benefits to readily embrace e-freight. Developing software and complying with e-freight would mean extra expenses for the forwarders. IATA should also think seriously, why e-freight has still not picked up in India and its penetration is even less than two per cent of international freight worldwide. Only then the industry can expect 100 per cent eAWB implementation by 2015.

Agents’

should be specified


ContentsMarch 2013

SECTORS

National News3 Cargotalk’s Ratan Paul felicitated at

‘Logistics Achievers Award & Talent

Hunt 2013’

10 Million Minds and CILT: A new

beginning for a cause

On the Move8 Emirates SkyCargo names Moaza

Al Falahi to VP post

Virgin Atlantic Airways appoints

Craig Kreeger as CEO

TIRWIN recruits new DGR

instructor

International Events11 ‘transport logistics 2013’ to

highlight the logistical challenges

International Airport12 Success Story of e-Freight at

Schiphol Cargo

Cargo Performance34 Airlines wise exim cargo

performance at Delhi International

Airport for January 2013

35 Airlines wise exim cargo

performance at Mumbai

International Airport for January

36 Airport wise domestic cargo

performance for November 2012

across India

38 Airport wise exim cargo

performance for November 2012

across India

Logistics Services

40 Delex wins Warehousing Excellence

Award

Industry Events42 Secretary Shipping appeals for

concerted efforts to resolve

logistics issues

58 WCA Family Lures India as a source

market

Family Album44 ACCD Picnic: A bid to strengthen

the bond of cargo community

46 Emirates SkyCargo honours top

agents

MJ Logistics organises ‘Access MJ’

for customer relationship

management

48 Air Cargo Club of Bombay hosts

Annual Ball in élan

52 Seahorse Ship Agencies host

dinner to introduce HAROPA

Shipping & Ports54 HAROPA zooms in on India,

offering multimodal connectivity

55 NISAA urges for fast clearance at

ICDs, CFSs and ports in India

DHL launches direct LCL services

from India to Poland, Brazil

COLUMNS

Guest Column

14 Budget-2013 Expectations: Supply

Chain & Logistics should get an

industry status

Chief Talk 18 IATA Confident e-AWB will be 100%

by 2015

In Conversation32 UPLIFT for the industry: Aim is to

practise e-freight through

collaborative approach

Viewpoint56 Ministry of Logistics: An urgent need

to offer world standard services

The progress of IATA e-freight in India remains to be quite slow. In view of the tremendous importance of e-trade and fast growth of e-commerce, Cargotalk made an attempt to unveil multiple factors that play as deterrents, with inputs from industry stakeholders. The objective of this Cover Story is to delve into benefits for the entire air cargo industry and to send messages to policy makers and executors to announce a time-bound programme on paperless practices.

22COVER STORY

IATA e-freight: When will India be ready?


On the MoveNew Appointments

Virgin Atlantic Airways appoints Craig Kreeger as CEOVirgin Atlantic Airways has appointed Craig Kreeger as its new Chief Executive. He joins from American Airlines (AA), where he has held a 27-year career spanning commercial, financial and strategic roles in the US and around the globe.

Kreeger, a graduate of the University of California in San Diego and with a MBA from UCLA, joined AA in 1985 as an analyst and appointed Senior Vice President, Customer in 2012. He spent six years in London as Senior Vice President, International and was responsible for AA operations and sales throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Pacific. He has worked on AA joint ventures with British Airways and Iberia across the Atlantic, as well as its partnership with Japanese Airlines in the Pacific.

Craig Kreeger said: “I am delighted to be taking on the role of Virgin Atlantic’s Chief Executive. It is a great airline renowned for its customer service and innovation.”

Emirates SkyCargo names Moaza Al Falahi to VP postEmirates SkyCargo has appointed Moaza Al Falahi as the Vice President Cargo Business and Product Development. “In her new appointment, Moaza will be managing the SkyCargo product line,” said Ram Menen, Emirates Divisional Senior Vice President Cargo. Meanwhile, Moaza said, “I am looking forward to both developing and expanding the SkyCargo product line, hoping to build on the current successes of the division.” She has been associated with Emirates since 2003.

TIRWIN recruits new DGR instructorTIRWIN has appointed Vasanti Ramesh as its new DGR instructor in Chennai. Prior to this, she was associated with Air India, Chennai for the last 20 years. She also brings with her the two decades of hands-on air cargo experience and knowledge to TIRWIN.

She has been accorded approval by DGCA-India and IATA to be a DGR instructor. Vasanti has been with TIRWIN since 2010. The company specialises in airline and transport management services.


National NewsIndustry Event

The ‘Logistics Achievers Award and Talent Hunt 2013’ had a footfall of more than 500 prominent logisticians from India and abroad. In a bid to sensitise industry towards recruiting fresh graduates and post graduates, Million Minds team gave presentations in more than 100 business schools of Mumbai, Bangalore , Delhi and Punjab. The aim of the presentation was to encourage youth to understand and seek job opportunities in logistics sector.

Million Minds Management Services (formerly known as T2P Consultants) was incorporated in the year 2007 in Delhi with a defined mission and vision of ‘Offering quality services in the field of logistics education, training and consultancy for performance enhancement’. Since its inception, the young and dynamic team of Million Minds has left no stone unturned to achieve its milestone. With the focus on gradual revenue increment, the team also focussed on means and ways to consolidate logistics industry as a whole. In this direction, Million Minds team worked with the education industry and helped the youth in making future in logistics sector. In 2012, they organised the first edition of the award function called ‘Logistics Talent

Hunt 2012, International Conference & Award’ in New Delhi.

After completion of regional screening of Logistics Talent Hunt 2013, national level competition was organised and nine teams

were declared winners by the jury. Twenty Five students from these national winners went a step further and decided to dedicate themselves to the enhancement of logistics sector and became prestigious member of the club namely, “Brand Ambassador, Logistics Talent Hunt” that was unveiled at this event.

In addition, with an objective to record the students’ observations towards talent hunt, the organisers published a book -‘Logistics an untapped opportunity’. A research paper: ‘White Paper on Human Resource the Critical Gap’, prepared by Million Minds, was also unveiled at this event.

Speaking at the occasion, Lt. Gen DV Kalra (Retd.) AVSM, PVSM said, “Logistics came from army and now the time has come to give logistics industry a touch of army like working in a proposition to achieve perfection.” K C Jena, Chairman CILT (India)/Former Chairman Railway Board appreciated Million Minds for its attempt to bring all logisticians on a common platform and cited the event as a start of change in logistics sector.

Amit Shankhdhar, Director Million Minds Management Services, focussed on organisational mission with the objective of bringing the whole logistics industry together by shifting from competition to collaboration. He also emphasised on to prepare future leaders by encouraging youth to take logistics as a career.

“We are delighted to hold the 2nd edition of Logistics Achievers Awards. The industry which works as the backbone of economic activities and the people who move this industry are hardly recognised for their immense contribution,” added Prem Prakash, Director, Million Minds Management Services.

Million Minds and CILTA new beginning for a causeThe ‘Logistics Achievers Award and Talent Hunt 2013’ programme, which concluded on February 9 in New Delhi, witnessed huge industry participation. Launched by Million Minds Management Services and Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport, India (CILT) in association with several other organisations, the event created tremendous enthusiasm, especially among the students and ensuing logistics practitioners.

Student Recommendations by Mumbai and Delhi Winners

Gap Analysis and Solutions in Indian Logistics in terms of Human Resource - HR team should focus more on skill development of employees and offer customised trainings. Appraisals should be skill-based and not time basedReal face of logistics – Drivers - India Vs Global Benchmark – Drivers should be provided with better amenities and the Government should control the food quality parameters to be served by road side Dhabas. Logistics Services in Rural India – Potential & Practices- Companies should focus more on rural logistics

The Millon Minds Advisors at the ‘Logistics Achievers Award and Talent Hunt 2013’ with the officials of Millon Minds & CILT


International EventNews Update

Messe München International will be organising transport logistic 2013, one of the world’s leading trade fair

for logistics, mobility, IT and supply chain management from June 4 to 7, 2013 at Messe München International’s exhibition centre in Munich. The aim of the trade show is to deal with the increasing concentration of people, resources, goods and capital based on a UN study which highlighted that by 2030 two-thirds of the world’s population will be living in urban areas.

Therefore, this trade show will cover all facets of road, rail, sea and air freight. Its exhibition portfolio spans logistics and freight transport, telematics, in-house logistics and materials handling. The show also encompasses Air Cargo Europe, an exhibition for the global air freight industry. The logistics industry will examine this whole subject of urbanisation in its programme while keeping the logistics and mobility concepts in mind. The panel will also discuss issues like the challenges for urban logistics in the future: chronic overloading of the transport network,

delays, environmental pollution and noise. They will also discuss solutions, including combined transports, collaboration in warehouses and electro-mobility in an attempt to identify the challenges that the industry is facing and how these challenges can be tackled easily.

In addition to transport logistic in Munich, there are two sister events outside Germany: transport logistic China with Air Cargo China and logitrans Transport Logistics Exhibition in Istanbul.

Messe München International organises trade shows in Asia, Russia, the Middle East, South America and South Africa. With 11 associated companies abroad – in Europe and in Asia – and over 60 foreign representatives actively serving over 90 countries, Messe München International has a worldwide business network. The Group also takes a pioneering role in regard to sustainability. It is the first trade-fair company to be awarded energy-efficiency certification from the technical inspection authorities TÜV SÜD.

‘transport logistic 2013’ to highlight the logistical challenges


The €1.2 million e-freight project at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol was launched in July 2010 and has successfully achieved a five-fold

increase in e-freight shipments since its inception. In 2010, only 1,665 shipments were sent as paperless e-freight. By December 2012, the annual total had risen to 21,176.

With an objective of successful implementation of e-freight, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol created a joint platform (a consortium) called ‘e-freight@NL’ that

consisted of all elements of the air cargo supply chain. It also included the necessary IT knowledge that helped the airport to successfully facilitate and pilot several projects throughout the supply chain.

Schiphol Cargo, the airport’s dedicated cargo development arm, played a neutral liaison and facilitation role between various parties in the supply chain throughout the project, establishing what would be required to improve the cargo process at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.

The e-freight@NL included six “workpackages” that involved assessing the requirements of the industry; identifying gaps in IT systems; setting up an open platform for data exchange and transmission; testing and validation of data; reporting and making recommendations. Other achievements of e-freight@NL include the establishment of a help desk and the e-Freight@NL Online Academy, to give advice and provide online training to the industry and potential users.

“The simultaneous involvement of shippers, logistics service providers, handling companies and airlines created awareness of gaps that were present in digitising the paper-based air cargo supply chain,” underlined Saskia.

According to Saskia, several pilot projects were started between shippers and forwarders, using OCR (optical character recognition) equipment to transform paper documents into the required “e-freight ready” XML format. These projects resulted in substantial time saving, and several companies have now adapted their processes to continue working in this way.

“We have many ambassadors for the continuation of the process, who are determined to continue increasing the

number of e-freight shipments and set an example for other companies within the Schiphol Cargo community. Among these, there is now a sense of urgency to join in with paperless air freight,” she observed.

At present, Schiphol’s top ten e-freight routes are Singapore, Hong Kong, New York, Tokyo (Narita), Vancouver, London Heathrow, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Los Angeles and Atlanta. “e-Freight@NL project may be completed, but e-freight will not stand still now, and the process of digitising supply chains will certainly carry on at Schiphol. The airport considers paperless transport as one of the top priorities to improve efficiency in the supply chain,” stressed Saskia.

International AirportIn Conversation

Success Story of e-FreightSchiphol CargoAmsterdam Airport Schiphol is one of the leading airports in respect to facilitating e-freight. Speaking to Cargotalk Saskia van Pelt, Director, Business Development, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and a founder member of ‘e-freight@NL’ and currently a member of its steering committee elaborates on the airport’s commendable initiatives…

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol Facts

Third largest cargo airport in Europe Seventeenth largest cargo airport in the world

Employs over 26,000 people 1.5 million tonnes of cargo in 2011 313 scheduled airline destinations in 90+ countries

106 scheduled airlines 22 scheduled freighter operators Highest share of (non-integrator) maindeck capacity in Europe

25 dedicated full freighter Cat 8/9 stands

5 main runways, ranging from 3,400 – 3,800 metres in length

400,000 m2 of cargo warehouses, of which 60 per cent have direct air side access

11,000 m2 of new cargo buildings under construction with direct air side access

3 new logistic parks planned Dedicated freight lane planned to connect air cargo terminal directly to logistic parks, truck-, water- and High Speed Train Cargo terminal of ACT

Other achievements of e-freight@NL include

the establishment of a help desk and the

e-Freight@NL Online Academy”Saskia van Pelt

Director, Business Development, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and a founder member of

‘e-freight@NL

RATAN KR PAUL

WWW.CARGOTALK.IN

Guest ColumnBudget-2013 Expectations

The Indian economy is striving for improvements in the field of Supply Chain & Logistics to gain a competitive edge in today’s global

economy. The Indian government should enhance its commitment towards the growth of Supply Chain & Logistics sector by taking some serious measures in the 2013 Budget.

The supply chain sector has today grown to over USD 110 billion and forms the backbone of Indian economy. This sector makes a vital contribution in the growth and development of the Indian economy. Today, when our economy is undergoing slowdown, Supply Chain & Logistics sector has a pivotal role to play in the swift recovery of our economy.

There are some fundamental issues faced by Supply Chain & Logistics sector in the country, which make this sector very complicated. To begin with, inefficient infrastructure could be the single most critical issue that India faces. Despite a relatively impressive economic growth, India’s dilapidated roads, congested ports, inadequate power and complex state regulations are impeding development in Supply Chain & Logistics sector. The government’s focus should be towards addressing these core issues faced by Supply Chain & Logistics sector at a very quick pace. If these issues are addressed well in this Budget and the ones to follow, then we can expect our economic growth rates overtaking China in the next few years.

Currently, our National Highways form only two per cent of the entire Road Network in the country, but handle over

40 per cent of national road freight traffic. This puts tremendous pressure on the highway infrastructure as well as results in massive traffic bottlenecks. On an average, a commercial vehicle in India runs at a speed of 20 miles per hour (mph) compared to over 60 mph in the developed markets of the USA and Western Europe. This brings in lots of inefficiencies in logistics operations, which are transmitted to various other sectors of the economy.

The present pace of road infrastructure development in India is slow vis-à-vis other developing economies. The quality of Indian roads in comparison with China is well below expectations and our poor hinterland connectivity is affecting the trade growth in the country. Since roads are the predominant mode of transportation in India, therefore, the government needs to allocate significant budget for developing the road infrastructure, with an immediate focus on building national and state highways as well as improving hinterland connectivity. High transaction costs arising from inadequate and inefficient infrastructure can prevent the economy from realising its full growth potential regardless of the progress on other fronts. In the upcoming Budget, the government must take some concrete steps to improve this situation.

Efficient infrastructure is the key to the growth of the Supply Chain & Logistics sector in India. We would request the government to increase its thrust on infrastructure development and to take initiatives for faster development of roads. The Budget should ease regulatory hurdles in order to facilitate building up of world-class infrastructure. To sustain growth, India needs significant investment in

Vineet Kanaujia Vice President - Marketing, Safexpress

Supply Chain & Logisticsshould get an industry status


infrastructure, including roads, rails and ports in order to facilitate faster and more efficient movement of goods across the country.

Our country also has complex Regulatory structures, which form a major bottleneck and affect the on-road time of vehicles substantially. Bulk of the time, which a vehicle takes in moving from one location to another is spent idling on the check posts. Long halts by delivery vehicles are required to complete the formalities and to pay the cross-border fee at the state borders. The government must initiate strong steps in this Budget towards reducing these regulatory hurdles.

Multiple toll points on highways reduce efficiency and increase the delivery lead time. Also, the lack of uniformity in toll charges creates irregularities in the cost structure. The government should implement a centralised toll mechanism to bring about uniformity in the toll charges across different checkpoints. There is a burning need to develop more access-controlled expressways, as they ensure

free passage for heavy vehicles as well as passenger vehicles. These measures by the government will help in curtailing the downtime and enhance efficiency by increasing the on-road time of vehicles.

The government also needs to take measures towards creating more skilled manpower for Supply Chain & Logistics sector. There is a huge need to develop training institutes for truck drivers, as the major manpower gaps are at the bottom of the pyramid. Also, there is a huge need for developing vocational as well as professional courses in the area of Supply Chain & Logistics.

We expect that warehousing would be a major focus area for Supply Chain & Logistics sector for several years to come. In order to create world-class warehousing facilities in India, the government needs to

create conducive environment. There is a need for long-term investment from public as well as private players for building warehousing facilities. The government, on its part, needs to bring about land reforms, which will help in setting aside lands for creation of logistics facilities.

The most important recommendation to the government would be to provide the Supply Chain & Logistics sector an industry status. Given the massive contribution this sector makes in

the growth of our economy, it is imperative that it should be provided an industry status at the earliest. With this status, the overall perspective towards Supply Chain & Logistics would change. The business will get its due in terms of being taken far more seriously. We must remember that a major part of our economy is dependent on the Supply Chain & Logistics sector. This sector has far-reaching implications on the economy and is pivotal to the overall growth and development of the economy.

Guest ColumnBudget-2013 Expectations


Des feels e-commerce and specifically, e-freight is the future of the air cargo industry. Paperless cargo is a goal, which

every segment of the industry – shippers, forwarders and airlines – is committed to, through the work of the Global Air Cargo Advisory Group (GACAG).

He pointed out that at the recent World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, the WEF published a study on ‘Removing Trade Barriers’ featuring e-freight as a case example, among others that illustrate the benefits governments and companies could get from removing key barriers such as the lack of electronic customs procedures and over-reliance on paper documents.

According to Des, e-freight, once fully adopted, will cut thousands of tonnes

of paper, speed up transit times by up to 24-hours and improve the industry’s environmental credentials. There are significant securities and cost benefits as well. “With cargo yields at risk of falling for the second year running in 2013, the benefits in pushing forward the efficiencies of e-freight should be clear,” he said.

IATA has agreed on an e-freight Roadmap with GACAG that has called for 80 per cent of global airfreight trade lanes to be e-freight enabled by the end of 2015. They are working with industry partners to develop e-freight in key air cargo locations, including the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries.

IATA is also working in collaboration with the World Customs Organisation (WCO) to push government administrations to adopt the WCO’s “Dematerialisation”

Chief Talk In Conversation

As a major first step towards delivering the

complete e-freight suite, IATA’s airline members are committed to introducing the e-AWB (electronic Air

Waybill). IATA’s targets are to deliver 20 per cent e-AWB penetration by the end of 2013, 50 per cent

by end 2014, and 100 per cent by 2015. Des Vertannes, Global Head of

Cargo, IATA provides an update in an interview

with Cargotalk.

e-AWB will be

100% by 2015

RATAN KR PAUL


recommendations. These call upon national administrations to remove the requirement for paper Customs Declarations and paper supporting documents, in compliance with the Revised Kyoto Convention standards and the WCO SAFE Framework of Standards recommendations. Some 166 WCO Member States have committed to adopt SAFE, and India is one of them.

“As a major first step towards delivering the complete e-freight suite, IATA’s airline members are committed to introducing the e-AWB (electronic Air Waybill). IATA has agreed with FIATA that adoption of e-AWB is an important industry priority, and our targets are to deliver 20 per cent e-AWB penetration by the end of 2013, 50 per cent by end 2014, and 100 per cent by 2015. GACAG also fully endorses this timetable,” informed Des.

Areas of Concern Currently, the global penetration of the e-AWB is at around seven per cent. “So, we have clearly worked to reach our year-end target. There are a number of issues behind the relatively slow pickup of the e-AWB. Some national governments have failed to ratify the ICAO protocol MC99, which enables the use of e-AWB as the contract of carriage. In those countries, IATA together with the national airlines is lobbying the government to ratify MC99,” Des observed.

In addition, some airlines and their trading partners have been unable to invest in systems enhancements needed to optimise e-freight capabilities due to the financial crisis that has been gripping the world. Some government departments have also had budget constraints, which have affected their adoption of paperless e-Commerce and e-Customs practices that support e-freight.

Airlines InitiativesAgainst the above scenario, IATA witnessed a number of success stories with the e-AWB, notably Cathay Pacific in Hong Kong and Emirates in the UAE, who have implemented 100 per cent e-AWB from their hubs in Hong Kong and Dubai. Similar trends are being followed by Singapore Airlines in Singapore, and by Korean Air at Seoul. Many key trade lanes are using the e-AWB and the penetration is growing.

“I am confident that the targets will be met and I have been delighted with the response from airlines, particularly, the

airlines on the Cargo Committee. They have realised that they have to lead from the front in adopting a paperless approach. Of course, many airlines have gone through a very tough few years, financially, and have not had sufficient resources to invest in e-freight capability. Hopefully, as the benefits become evident, and as volumes pick up, that will change,” Des feels.

He also maintained that the response from the rest of the cargo chain has also been positive. “The creation of GACAG means that we have a platform to discuss and move projects forward together. This also means that we have refocused the e-freight project, with responsibility for the removal of core paper transportation documents falling to airlines, while the removal of other paper documents is led by the shipper and freight forwarder communities,” Des emphasised.

Indian ContextAccording to Des, the air cargo industry in India is largely ready to implement e-freight, and in fact, some airlines have already put in place most of the e-freight practices and processes, but we are still missing full paperless customs processes.

He pointed out that although India has signed the ICAO protocol MC99 and India Customs has an e-Commerce platform called ICEGATE, which allows electronic filing of Import & Export documents, India Customs still requires the submission of paper Customs Declarations and paper Support Documents, such as commercial invoices, in addition to the electronic filing through ICEGATE.

“That is the only obstacle to the industry implementing e-freight completely in India, and we are hopeful that this can be removed with the collaboration of India Customs,” he maintained.

“However, while we are working to remove this obstacle, there is nothing stopping the airfreight industry in India moving forward with e-AWB immediately, since the usage of e-AWB is already accepted by the Central Customs Administration in India,” he added.

Meanwhile, an industry support group, coordinated by IATA and led by Delhi International Airport (DIAL) with participation from airlines, and freight forwarders as customs brokers, has been engaging with India Customs to implement a paperless e-Customs capability. India Customs have agreed, in principle, to undertake paperless e-Customs trials on low value shipments at New Delhi Airport as a proof of concept.

“The New Delhi Proof of Concept is intended to lead to the roll out of a fully paperless capability across all Indian airports and for all shipments irrespective of their value,” Des believes.

Once the Proof of Concept trials are concluded, the industry support group will again meet with representatives of the Central Board of Excise and Customs to discuss a roll out plan. This approach has the full approval and backing from the WCO under its “Dematerialisation” initiative.

“In the short-term, we are working with airport customs authorities on the ground to accept shipments using an e-AWB, in accordance with the regulations defined by the central customs administration. We need the influence and leadership of the national airlines for making India a market fully open for the e-AWB,” Des concluded.

The creation of GACAG means

that we have a platform to discuss and move projects forward together”

Des Vertannes Global Head of Cargo, IATA

Chief Talk In Conversation


Cover Story Industry Issues

When will India be ready?

e-freight


The Global Air Cargo Advisory Group (GACAG), which comprises FIATA, TIACA, GSF and IATA, revealed that in today’s electronic world, air cargo relies heavily on paper documentation

for the exchange of information. Each international airfreight shipment can require up to 30 different paper documents – increasing the cost of airfreight and lengthening transport times. The e-freight initiative aims to build and to implement an end-to-end paperless transportation process for the air cargo industry where paper documents are replaced with the exchange of electronic data.

In India, the scenario of e-freight practice is far from reality. “Technology to simplify the process is always welcome and e-freight is an initiative towards this process. In India, in spite of 15 years of customs EDI (electronic data interchange) initiatives, the entire process is still rudimentary and dependent on paper declarations and certifications, which have not been brought down. We have a long road to travel for a paperless commerce environment,” stated J Krishnan, immediate Past President, Air Cargo Agents Association of India (ACAAI).

He pointed out that ACAAI has always been progressive in its approach to business and the ACAAI/Kale initiative of UPLIFT has already enabled the agents to communicate electronically with carriers and transmit data and manifest.

“Even though India is known for its IT, unfortunately, it has not played an important role in the forwarding industry in India to date with respect to interfaces between various agencies involved in the transport chain. All the major stakeholders need to recognise and understand the benefits of e-freight and work together towards paperless from our present paper based environment. ACAAI has driven this by its initiative with UPLIFT, providing a platform for forwarders in India, other stakeholders must take a cue from the same,” said Sam Katgara, Partner, Jeena & Co. and Past President, ACAAI.

“We have been hearing of initiatives related to EDI and e-trade in freight forwarding since 1990, i.e. prior to Internet era. It is often experienced that in such initiatives, the beneficiary of automation and system improvement does not pay for the cost of the service and the cost of

The progress of IATA e-freight in India remains to be quite slow. In view of the tremendous importance of e-trade and fast growth of e-commerce, Cargotalk made an attempt to unveil multiple factors that play as deterrents, with inputs from industry stakeholders. The objective of this Cover Story is to delve into benefits for the entire air cargo industry and to send messages to policy makers and executors to announce a time-bound programme on paperless practices.

J Krishnanimmediate Past President, Air Cargo Agents Association of India (ACAAI)

Sam KatgaraPartner, Jeena & Co. and Past

President, ACAAI

Need to recognise and sell much more the benefits of e-freight like saving of space for storing physical documents

Clear benefit should be defined for the forwarders using e-freight

Need to examine reliability, efficiency, visibility and conversation – as key

aspects of implementation of e-freight

The IT platform needs to be robust enough to sustain this environment

The participative co-operation between airlines, custodian and government agencies is required

Each stake holder must to see and experience the value of e-freight to its

own advantage

Need to promote e-freight should be for better governance, compliance, seamless, speed, cost benefits and reducing carbon foot-print

Since the scope of e-freight is currently too broad it should initially be limited to Air Waybill, House Air Waybill and Cargo Manifest only

MAJOR RECOMMENDATIONS

RATAN KR PAUL


labour. The service provider investing in such initiatives for customer benefits and carriers, often has to invest or spend without specific competitive advantage,” observed Shantanu Bhadkamkar, Chairman, Federation of Freight Forwarders’ Association of India (FFFAI). He expects that e-freight initiative will create some advantage for freight forwarders and cargo agents particularly as e-AWB initiative already exist, which is similar to e-freight.

Bhadkamkar also claims that the Indian freight forwarders are already e-enabled as they carry out several transactions, including filing of customs documents online or through ICEGATE amongst other EDI functions.

According to SL Sharma, Vice President, ACAAI, e-freight has been gaining ground slowly. He admitted, “It is difficult to bring about a change in the working style of people and more so in India where any change is looked as threat to one’s existence.” So far, he added, e-freight has been widely promoted by the airlines to start with. Now, ACAAI has rolled out a platform called UPLIFT to facilitate e-fright.

“I feel forwarders will have a huge role to play in successful implementation of e-freight. Freight forwarders are the connection between shippers/consignees and the ports, airports, customs and carriers. I am very confident that e-freight will become an integral part of the entire logistics chain over the next 2-3 years,” he emphasised.

According to him, Indian freight forwarders have been very watchful to start with, but are now beginning to implement all requisites of e-freight implementation by

virtue of investing in equipment and training of team members.

“The policy makers need to ensure that the implementation of e-fright is done with utmost importance in their working thus setting an example for forwarders, CHAs and other stakeholders. There are plenty of gaps in the EDI implementation with the customs and custodians. Once these are removedd, the real benefit of e-freight will be felt by everyone in the logistics value chain,” Sharma added.

“No doubt, e-freight is an extremely important feature and future of our business. It has unfortunately not been successful due to a single vision approach by IATA. They have only kept the airlines interest in mind without any real benefits for the forwarders in this programme. As far as India goes, we are not even a country in IATA’s pilot project and hence, we are far away from e-freight in India. I do not see

the implementation of e-freight in the Indian market till the country officially forms a part of this,” observed Keshav Tanna, Director, Links Forwarders and Past President, ACAAI.

He, however, maintained that the Indian freight forwarders are extremely e-friendly (perhaps even more then certain airlines in India). “I do not see a problem in the Indian freight forwarders adapting to e-freight; however, there has to be forwarder related benefits for the forwarding fraternity to readily embrace e-freight and it cannot be a one sided airline-friendly project,” he added. In Tanna’s opinion, developing software and complying with e-freight would mean extra expenses for the forwarders without any tangible benefits. “It is alright to say that the e-freight programme aims at eliminating Jumbo Jets worth of paper documentation, but for whose benefits is that? Certainly, it is not for the forwarders. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that e-freight has still not picked up and its penetration is even less than two per cent of international freight worldwide,” he said.

“E freight is not a stand alone option and unless all stakeholder of the supply chain are linked by a common user facility, it would be difficult for the initiate to be dominant. While it is important that e fright becomes an integral part of the exim cargo chain, disconnected usage of the facility is no solution. Presently, it is disjointed development where each stakeholder prefers their own system of communications,” said G Raghu Sankar, Executive Director, International Clearing and Shipping Agency.

In his opinion, if all the players of the supply chain and the constituents in

Shantanu Bhadkamkar Chairman

FFFAI

SL SharmaVice President

ACAAI

Keshav TannaDirector, Links Forwarders and

Past President, ACAAI

G Raghu SankarExecutive Director, International Clearing and Shipping Agency


Indian freight forwarders have been watchful to start with, but are now beginning to implement requisites

of e-freight by virtue of investing training of

team members”SL Sharma

Vice President, ACAAI


every link of the supply chain are to be considered, the country is not ready for the implementation of e-freight. On the contrary, if few players in each link are the deciding factor then Indian freight forwarders are ready for the same.

Firdos Fanibanda, MD, Modern Cargo Services pointed out that the world has already moved into e-mode and there is a high level of environmental consciousness. “In view of that it is only fitting that we from the freight industry move towards becoming e-compliant. e-freight is definitely a step in that direction. If we look at it practically, it will also help in the reduction of costs, offer more accuracy and transparency and an easy worldwide access for the relevant documents,” he said.

He, however, maintained that in Indian scenario, it may take a bit longer to realise e-freight’s full potential given a large section of people’s love for paper work. “All agencies involved in the freight industry and most importantly the government agencies need to accept this initiative for it to be successful. Acceptance and awareness needs to be created more with customers and the government agencies,” he argued.

Endorsing Fanibanda, Sunil Kohli, MD, Rahat Cargo felt that at present, the cargo fraternity in India still relies upon the paper at every stage. However, it is not only the shippers and the freight forwarders but also the participating agencies, such as Customs and warehouse custodian preferring various formalities based on paper. “A concerted initiative needs to be taken to infuse the e-ideas among all concerned and gradually, all stakeholders shall be able to make the best use of e-freight,” Kohli added.

According to Ronnie Goveas, Chairman ACAAI – WR, the practical feasibility to implement e-freight in India (taking into consideration the ground realities of logistic business, industry policies and infrastructure constraints, regulatory and legal environments, etc.) is a huge task. However, the Kale Logistics through ACAAI has already created a common community platform – UPLIFT that will enable 15000+ strong freight forwarders and Custom House agents in India to electronically communicate among themselves and other stakeholders. Shippers along with consignees, airports, seaports, airlines, transporters, customs and custodians will soon be able to liaison with each other electronically. “In India, a smoother flow of information along with documentation and compliances to regulatory statutes would go a long way in improving the efficiency and delivery standards for the Indian logistics industry as a whole,” he said.

Richard Theknath, MD, Jet Freight Logistics, was also of the view that in Indian scenario, the freight forwarders, airlines and shippers/consignees will always go for e-freight but the main hindrance in its implementation is the concerned government and statutory bodies like customs and the Ministry of Commerce. Currently, they do not have the desired infrastructure and regulations to implement it. In fact, these regulations should be implemented to save paperwork.

“Freight forwarders will be ready to follow e-freight, provided customs regulations are compatible. Also, they should be ready if given no other option,” he stressed.

Taking cue from Theknath, Shabana Khan, Senior Director – airfreight, DHL Global Forwarding, observed that e-freight in India is at its infancy. Although a limited version is already present in the current environment, the benefit and result of it is yet to be realised at an optimum level. “As an industry, freight forwarding is receptive and supportive of e-freight. The diluted version would have limited support across segments, as the quantum and merit of it may vary,” she explained.

Carriers PerspectiveAccording to Vipan Jain, Regional Head-Logistics, Lufthansa Cargo, e-freight will increasingly eliminate the flow of documents and the material and information flows become synchronised by new technologies. The target of the IATA e-freight initiative is to remove 12 core documents within the air cargo supply chain. Electronic transactions are becoming more and more popular due to the reduction in paper work and cost by

Firdos FanibandaMD, Modern Cargo

Services

Sunil Kohli MD,

Rahat Cargo

Ronnie GoveasChairman

ACAAI – WR

Richard TheknathMD

Jet Freight Logistics

e-freight will also help in the reduction

of costs, offer more accuracy and transparency and

an easy worldwide access for the relevant

documents”Firdos Fanibanda

MD, Modern Cargo Services


speeding up the process with reliability of data.

Lufthansa managed to hit the first shipment under e-freight from Bengaluru on September 15, 2010. “This journey never stopped and with and without having all trade partners on board, we are continuing it with forwarders. Basically, we have four major supporting partners in the whole chain, i.e. forwarders (eAWB or FWB), carriers, terminal operators, customs and nearly all partners are prepared. However, we need to create a connectivity and regular chain to accept and exchange documents,” said Jain.

Keki Patel, Cargo Manager-India and Nepal, Emirates SkyCargo, underlined the fact that meanwhile leading carriers in India have taken the initiative together with IATA on the e-freight project, which enables all logistics partners, including customs authorities and security to exchange electronically the processing of export and import air consignments. “Emirates wherever possible together with our forwarding partners have migrated to paperless AWB as a first step, and yet printing of the AWB is available on need basis only, for regulatory authorities,” he informed.

Ashish Kapur, Regional Cargo Manager–South Asia, Middle East & Africa, Cathay Pacific Airways emphasised that e-freight can greatly improve both forwarders and airlines’ operational efficiency. It also helps in shortening the shipment cycle time by electronic customs clearance. However, this project cannot be successful, if only a few airlines and forwarders participate. There has to be a critical mass to influence all countries to adopt the future e-freight process.

“We at Cathay Pacific Cargo are convinced that e-AWB and e-freight are the most efficient procedures for the cargo industry and that is the way forward. Therefore, we have prepared all our countries, including India, to begin e-AWB and e-freight with our forwarder customers,” said Kapur. He also pointed out the challenges that the air cargo industry faces in India as it still uses paper documents to clear export customs, which are normally not required in e-freight enabled countries. “The understanding of our forwarders on this project and the e-AWB data quality is also very important. When Cathay Pacific first rolled out the e-AWB project these challenges were faced in every new location,” Kapur shared.

“If we take the example of e-AWBs, we can clearly see the benefits e-freight will bring to the industry. There would be far fewer handling delays brought about by missing or illegible AWBs. As well as making customers happier, this can also help reduce the risk of fines at customs. Beyond

Shabana Khan Senior Director – airfreight

DHL Global

Vipan JainRegional Head-Logistics

Lufthansa Cargo

Keki PatelCargo Manager-India and Nepal, Emirates SkyCargo

Ashish KapurRegional Cargo Manager–Cathay Pacific


We at Cathay

convinced that e-AWB and e-freight are

procedures for the cargo industry and that is the

way forward”Ashish Kapur

Regional Cargo Manager–South Asia, Middle


this, e-freight acts as a security enabler, helping the industry to more effectively track and screen cargo. This hugely reduces the risk of contraband or dangerous materials being inadvertently shipped,” endorsed Malcolm Fowler, E-Business Programme Manager, IAG Cargo.

IAG Cargo has already deployed a full feature IATA-compliant e-AWB

application: a web-based solution that is available globally across its network. “We have invested significantly in our e-AWB system and have created a dedicated implementation team. We have also worked to ensure that all relevant staff across our operations has received full training on the system,” informed Flower.

IAG Cargo has created a dedicated team and ensured they are resourced appropriately to make complete e-freight a reality in its UK operations. The airline’s next focus will be on those territories where the home carrier has already implemented e-cargo. “We will, however, also prioritise any market where demand for e-freight services is strong. If we see such demand from India we will, of course, ensure that we can provide our customers with services they want,” he maintained.

Technology SupportGS1 is deeply involved with the EU’s multimodal e-trade standard formation, where air/IATA e-freight has been considered with utmost importance. According to Ravi Mathur, CEO, GS1 India, e-freight capabilities will be developed to support major stakeholders like transport users, service providers, infrastructure providers and regulators. “e-freight is an integrated project within the EU’s 7th Framework Programme.

The e-freight project is aimed at supporting, from a transport perspective, the three pillars of European Policy namely, strengthening of the internal market and competitiveness; improving regulation to create a more dynamic business environment and promoting sustainable development,” said Mathur.

Specifically, e-freight will contribute to the goals of the Freight Transport Logistics Action Plan (Oct 2007), and its Action Plan (Oct 2008) pertaining to the development of a standard framework for freight information exchange covering all transport modes.

These include a wide spectrum of modes, including an European Single Transport Document for carriage of goods with all the necessary legislative support, a single access point for administrative procedures; harmonised border crossings for all modes of transportation for EU member states.

The necessary infrastructure is required for establishing secure and efficient transport corridors between Europe, the US and Asia.

“e-Freight will generate benefits for shippers, freight forwarders, regulators and infrastructure managers in terms of fewer costs, fewer delays and more flexibility,” stressed Mathur.

He, however, felt, “To implement e-freight in India, there has to be a steering body to lead the project. Both the industry and respective Ministries of the Government of India need to work hand in hand with a specific time line to make e-freight mandatory, for the greater interest of the country’s economy. Otherwise, India will be left out from the growth track of the international trade.”

Supplementing Mathur, Parvinder Singh, MD, Hans Infomatic viewed that as of now, the scenario is quite pessimistic as key stakeholders like airlines, customs and cargo agents have not shown any interest in implementing the e-freight although IATA is working towards it and required technology is in place. “For e-freight to be a success, these key stakeholders must take proactive role and induce others for adoption,” he felt.

Meanwhile, Hans Infomatic has developed and deployed the key systems for e-freight initiative. “Our company is working with IATA to keep the industry abreast with the latest technological advances. Hans is now part of the IATA team called Cargo XML Task Force where the latest EDI cargo standards based on XML are developed,” Singh informed.

Malcolm FowlerE-Business Programme

Manager, IAG Cargo

Ravi MathurCEO

GS1 India

Parvinder Singh MD

Hans Infomatic


Both the industry and the Government of

India need to work hand

time line to make e-freight mandatory”

Ravi Mathur CEO, GS1 India


Emerging TechnologyViewpoint

According to the World Economic Forum analysis report on IATA projections, there is an estimated 60 per cent to 80 per cent increase in

cross-border sales by reducing barriers, which e-freight can facilitate. “However, making paperless border crossing a reality depends critically on the willingness of multiple parties involved in the air cargo trade. One is regulators and the other include actual trade entities,” Jain pointed out.

He underlined the fact that the current e-freight network covers over 33 per cent of worldwide markets represented by countries that have already taken that step. The four largest and fastest-growing emerging markets – Brazil, Russia, India and China – that stand to benefit most by reducing long customs delays, yet do not permit electronic customs clearance. In India, there is a considerable distance to cover before the country can meet the target timeline set by IATA of- 100 per cent e-freight by the end of 2015. “If India is to reap benefits of e-freight, it needs to combine the strength of its three leading components- industry associations, IT providers and industry stakeholders,” observed Jain.

Role of Kale LogisticsAccording to Jain, Kale has always supported the e-freight initiative and has worked towards bringing India to a paper-free air cargo supply chain environment. “Since India needs to combine the strength of IT providers and industry stakeholders to reap benefits of e-freight, Kale Logistics has already been working closely with industry associations like Air Cargo Agents Association of India (ACAAI) and have pioneered the creation of India’s first cargo community platform- UPLIFT,” Jain pointed out. He maintained that today, Kale Logistics is moving closer towards making

UPLIFT an industry platform of choice. “We have seen rapid adoption of UPLIFT in last two years since its launch in January 2011,” he added. Currently, UPLIFT has more than 170 forwarders and Custom House agents as its subscribers, with over 1600 users using the platform every day. UPLIFT platform has handled more than 8,50,000 EDI messages covering over 450 shipment destinations globally.

Kale Logistics has planned to drive e-freight adoption in India through its Community Platform initiatives. Jain asserted that UPLIFT- Cargo Community Platform has demonstrated its capabilities to improve efficiency and reduce costs for the entire airfreight industry. “UPLIFT has been created with the involvement of various industry participants, including forwarders, airlines, customs, custom house agents and airport ground handlers,” Jain emphasised.

Expectations from the industry stakeholdersHe maintained that the 100 per cent e-freight target for India may seem like an uphill task at this junctute, but it is very much within the reach. “India is the pioneer in supplying all forms of IT solutions/services. All we require now is the collective effort by all industry stakeholders, regulators and influential experts to encourage the adoption of IT for a paper-free supply chain,” he viewed. He asserted that the industry is using technology in some form, which is not necessarily an industry standard. Such systems fail at unifying the trade links efficiently with their global business partners. A common digital platform can allow businesses of all sizes to thrive and benefit from each other. The idea that such a transformation is possible with the help of collaborative effort towards IT adoption needs to be explained to one and all.

Aim is to practise e-freight through collaborative approach

UPLIFT for the industryThe current state of IATA’s e-freight initiative pertaining to Indian air cargo industry is like creating a ripple in quiet waters and waiting for a treasure to emerge, says, Vipul Jain, Director, Kale Logistics Solutions in an interview with Cargotalk.

A common digital platform can allow

businesses of all sizes

from each other. The idea that such a transformation is

possible with the help of collaborative effort towards IT adoption

needs to be explained to one and all”

Vipul Jain Director, Kale Logistics Solutions

RATAN KR PAUL


Cargo Performance Export/Import

DELHI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT CARGO DEPARTMENT, IGI AIRPORT, NEW DELHI

(AIRLINE-WISE IMPORT/EXPORT CARGO PERFORMANCE FOR THE MONTH OF JANUARY 2013)All wt. in mt.

Total 13128 2590 15718 13307 29025 100.00% Cargo handled in Jan ‘12’ 11962 2448 14410 12522 26932 % VARIATION 9.75% 5.81% 9.08% 6.27% 7.77%

1 Jet Airways 1265 227 1493 1841 3333 11.48%

3 Emirates 889 1037 1926 429 2355 8.11%4 Air India 553 309 863 1195 2057 7.09%5 British Airways 914 72 986 797 1783 6.14%6 Thai Airways 255 87 342 1007 1350 4.65%7 Singapore 536 4 540 772 1313 4.52%8 Fedex Express Corpation 476 4 480 503 983 3.39%9 Qatar Airways 424 204 628 303 931 3.21%10 Lufthansa Cargo Airline 429 54 483 374 857 2.95%11 Kalitta Air 352 0 352 478 830 2.86%12 Air France 531 36 567 249 816 2.81%13 Malaysian Airline System 354 31 384 392 777 2.68%14 Etihad Airways 364 46 410 333 742 2.56%15 Swiss 482 39 521 182 703 2.42%16 Virgin Atlantic 370 0 370 215 585 2.02%17 Uzbekistan 361 32 392 190 583 2.01%18 Finnair 356 15 371 142 513 1.77%19 Klm 318 22 340 134 474 1.63%20 China Eastern Airlines 171 1 172 223 396 1.36%21 M/S All Nippon Airways 243 1 244 107 351 1.21%22 Japan Airlines 51 4 56 294 349 1.20%23 Saudia 159 162 321 13 335 1.15%24 Turkish Airlines 232 21 253 74 327 1.13%

26 United Airlines 177 2 178 60 238 0.82%27 Martin Airline 72 8 79 148 227 0.78%28 Kam Air 224 2 226 0 226 0.78%29 Air China 95 11 106 100 206 0.71%30 Indigo Cargo 138 1 139 53 193 0.66%31 Lufthansa Cargo Ag 115 4 119 66 184 0.64%32 Blue Dart 157 0 157 7 164 0.57%33 China Air 69 6 75 86 161 0.55%34 Mahan Air 125 9 134 7 141 0.48%35 Dhl Express 0 0 0 136 136 0.47%36 Ariana Afghan Airlines 86 0 86 44 130 0.45%37 Hercules Aviation 105 0 105 0 105 0.36%38 Gulf Air 79 21 100 2 102 0.35%39 Air Arabia 89 4 93 6 98 0.34%40 Eva Air 25 5 30 60 90 0.31%41 Air Mauritius 70 2 72 18 90 0.31%42 Sri Lankan Airlines Ltd 43 1 43 46 89 0.31%

44 Air Astana 36 26 63 0 63 0.22%45 Oman Air 52 4 56 7 63 0.22%46 Spice Jet 49 0 49 0 49 0.17%47 Air Shagoon Pvt. Ltd. 45 0 45 0 45 0.15%48 Ethopean Airlines 21 3 24 19 43 0.15%49 China Southern Airlines 17 0 17 19 36 0.12%50 Philippine Airlines 26 0 26 10 36 0.12%51 Asiana Airlines 22 0 22 11 33 0.11%52 Kenya 31 1 32 1 33 0.11%53 Elal Israel Air 0 0 0 32 32 0.11%54 Royal Jordanian Airlines 14 2 16 4 20 0.07%55 Pakistan International 6 0 6 10 16 0.06%56 Ups 0 0 0 15 15 0.05%57 Kuwait Airlines 2 9 11 2 13 0.04%58 Turkmenisthan Airlines 6 0 6 1 7 0.02%59 Jetlite 0 0 0 6 6 0.02%60 Air Shagoon Pvt. Ltd. 0 0 0 6 6 0.02%61 Air Shagoon Pvt. Ltd. 0 0 0 5 5 0.02%62 Iraqi Airways 1 0 1 0 1 0.00%63 Druk Air 0 0 0 0 0 0.00%64 Sam Aviation 0 0 0 0 0 0.00%

S. No. Airlines Export (MTs) Export Export Import Total Cargo % Perishable (with Peri.) of Total Cargo (MTs) (UPL) (MTs)


MUMBAI CSI AIRPORTEXPORT/IMPORT CARGO TONNAGE HANDLED

IN JANUARY 2013

S.No. Airlines Export Export Total Import Total General Perishable Export Exp+Imp

1 Jet Airways 1054.76 1081.56 2136.32 2372.71 4509.03 2 Emirates 1395.08 1540.02 2935.10 1041.62 3976.72 3 Air India 815.55 1468.86 2284.41 743.54 3027.95

4 Lufthansa 434.55 509.98 944.53 1213.77 2158.31 5 Singapore Airlines 796.93 238.73 1035.66 1053.84 2089.50 6 British Airways 682.02 557.36 1239.38 589.03 1828.40 7 Qatar Airways 563.23 304.77 868.00 463.48 1331.48 8 Etihad Airways 719.44 24.54 743.98 478.27 1222.25 9 Saudi Arabian Airlines 587.36 114.79 702.15 135.36 837.50 10 Turkish Airlines 512.96 63.60 576.56 193.65 770.21 11 Swiss Intl. Airlines 250.44 159.48 409.92 354.14 764.07 12 Air France 347.50 137.09 484.59 200.85 685.44 13 Ethopian Airlines 621.54 6.01 627.55 4.74 632.30 14 Malaysian Airlines 358.67 45.06 403.73 217.99 621.73 15 Thai Airways 164.89 139.41 304.30 289.11 593.41 16 Federal Express 266.73 41.86 308.59 238.80 547.38 17 UPS 126.76 0.00 126.76 294.23 420.99 18 Delta/KLM Airlines 167.77 56.07 223.84 109.82 333.66 19 South African Airlines 267.44 12.09 279.53 23.44 302.96 20 Martin Air 0.00 0.00 0.00 297.51 297.51 21 Virgin Atlantic 46.11 0.00 46.11 220.05 266.16 22 Air Cargo Arologic C/O Lufthansa 0.00 0.00 0.00 263.63 263.63 23 Kuwait Airways 112.60 142.65 255.25 5.65 260.90 24 Gulf Air 61.94 182.38 244.32 1.16 245.48 25 Kenya Airways 215.53 3.12 218.65 3.01 221.66 25 Korean Air 164.31 19.47 183.78 34.79 218.57 26 Fin Air 202.18 14.42 216.60 0.00 216.60 27 Air Mauritius 176.14 2.50 178.65 1.59 180.24 28 Air Arabia 36.15 119.59 155.74 0.81 156.55 29 Oman Air 60.15 71.38 131.53 2.14 133.66 30 EL-AL Airlines 71.96 4.98 76.94 55.75 132.69 31 Indigo Air 89.21 7.45 96.66 31.41 128.07 32 United/Continental Airlines 23.34 5.31 28.65 84.24 112.89 33 Blue Dart 57.13 0.00 57.13 46.74 103.87 34 Srilankan Air 44.84 5.45 50.29 20.94 71.23 35 Yemenia Airways 41.53 17.01 58.54 0.11 58.65 36 Charters 0.00 0.00 0.00 48.75 48.75 37 Bangkok Airways 36.40 0.99 37.39 4.20 41.58 38 Iran Air 27.53 3.01 30.54 4.01 34.55 39 Baharin Airlines 30.07 0.00 30.07 0.30 30.37 40 NorthWest Airlines 0.00 12.67 12.67 0.00 12.67 41 Air China 10.13 0.00 10.13 2.09 12.22 42 Pakistan intl Airlines 10.66 0.97 11.63 0.57 12.20 43 Egypt Air 11.45 0.00 11.45 0.73 12.18 44 Island Aviation (Maladvian) 5.58 0.00 5.58 0.00 5.58 45 Royal Jordanian 4.12 0.00 4.12 0.22 4.34 46 Qantas 0.00 0.05 0.05 0.00 0.05 47 Austrian Air 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

49 Royal Joradian 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.0038 Others 38.14 39.59 77.73 236.46 314.19

TOTAL 12741.17 7307.60 20048.76 12414.35 32463.11 %Variation over December 2012 0.04 6.31 2.23 (-)11.19 (-)3.35%Variation over January 2012 12.54 5.53 9.88 (-)10.09 1.27


Cargo Performance Airports in India

(E) Other Airports 110 148 -25 7 898 1003 -10 5 Grand Total 64538 67730 -4.7 528498 536973 -1.6 (A+B+C+D+E)

TRAFFIC STATISTICS D O M E S T I C F R E I G H T

1 Chennai 6532 6835 -4.4 52778 56300 -6.3 2 Kolkata* 6158 6482 -5.0 53061 55014 -3.6 3 Ahmedabad 2823 1437 96.5 23775 9719 144.6 4 Goa 982 448 119.2 3242 2543 27.5 5 Trivandrum 108 99 9.1 974 883 10.3 6 Guwahati 628 712 -11.8 4183 5677 -26.3 7 Calicut 30 15 100.0 193 130 48.5 8 Jaipur 561 498 12.7 4572 4441 2.9 9 Srinagar 220 141 56.0 2226 1651 34.8 10 Amritsar 10 4 150.0 68 57 19.3 11 Portblair 206 250 -17.6 1261 1499 -15.9 Total 18258 16921 7.9 146333 137914 6.1

(A) 11 International Airports

(B) 6 JV International Airports

(C) 9 Custom Airports

(D) 20 Domestic Airports

12 Delhi (Dial) 15345 17547 -12.5 127102 131755 -3.5 13 Mumbai (Mial) 14783 15353 -3.7 122539 127387 -3.8 14 Bangalore (Bial) 6570 7092 -7.4 55502 55490 0.0 15 Hyderabad (Ghial) 2913 2864 1.7 22277 23094 -3.5 16 Cochin (Cial) 673 694 -3.0 5906 5568 6.1 17 Nagpur (Mipl) 413 401 3.0 3221 3191 0.9 Total 40697 43951 -7.4 336547 346485 -2.9

18 Pune 1587 2015 -21.2 13406 14921 -10.2 19 Lucknow 175 334 -47.6 1340 2643 -49.3 20 Coimbatore 479 610 -21.5 4261 5044 -15.5 21 Patna 224 340 -34.1 1351 2457 -45.0 22 Visakhapatnam 75 44 70.5 925 654 41.4 23 Trichy 0 0 - 0 0 -24 Mangalore 22 23 -4.3 189 180 5.0 25 Chandigarh 241 305 -21.0 1852 1955 -5.3 26 Varanasi 10 39 -74.4 235 246 -4.5 27 Bagdogra 60 172 -65.1 894 1059 -15.6 28 Madurai 132 74 78.4 612 518 18.1 29 Gaya 0 0 - 0 0 - Total 3005 3956 -24.0 25065 29677 -15.5

30 Bhubaneswar 265 122 117.2 2100 1514 38.7 31 Indore 437 429 1.9 2991 3345 -10.6 32 Jammu 137 107 28.0 963 768 25.4 33 Agartala 463 576 -19.6 3987 4785 -16.7 34 Raipur 181 284 -36.3 1668 1853 -10.0 35 Imphal 341 451 -24.4 2841 3596 -21.0 36 Vadodara 146 175 -16.6 1380 1380 0.0 37 Ranchi 157 174 -9.8 1071 1136 -5.7 38 Bhopal 77 65 18.5 669 548 22.1 39 Aurangabad 66 109 -39.4 530 883 -40.0 40 Leh 82 120 -31.7 805 964 -16.5 41 Udaipur 0 0 - 0 0 -42 Rajkot 40 70 -42.9 175 474 -63.1 43 Tirupati 1 2 -50.0 16 21 -23.8 44 Dibrugarh 33 27 22.2 210 212 -0.9 45 Jodhpur 4 0 - 15 30 -50.0 46 Silchar 38 43 -11.6 234 385 -39.2 Total 2468 2754 -10.4 19655 21894 -10.2

Freight (in Tonnes) For the Month For the period April to NovemberS. No. Airport November 2012 Novemmber 2011 % Change 2012-13 2011-12 % Change

* Estimated


Cargo Performance Airports in India

TRAFFIC STATISTICS I N T E R N AT I O N A L F R E I G H T

12 Delhi (Dial) 27985 27607 1.4 236109 250099 -5.6 13 Mumbai (Mial) 34890 36662 -4.8 307414 317706 -3.2 14 Bangalore (Bial) 11341 11350 -0.1 94740 93457 1.4 15 Hyderabad (Ghial) 3914 3508 11.6 30009 29374 2.2 16 Cochin (Cial) 2805 3743 -25.1 25539 24534 4.1 17 Nagpur (Mipl) 32 36 -11.1 260 235 10.6 Total 80967 82906 -2.3 694071 715405 -3.0

(B) 6 JV International Airports

(C) 12 Custom Airports18 Pune 0 0 - 0 0 -19 Lucknow 103 37 178.4 887 531 67.0 20 Coimbatore 38 31 22.6 366 315 16.2 21 Patna 0 0 - 0 0 -22 Visakhapatnam 0 0 - 0 0 -23 Trichy 163 95 71.6 1654 1541 7.3 24 Mangalore 0 0 - 0 0 -25 Chandigarh 0 0 - 0 0 -26 Varanasi 2 0 - 6 1 500.0 27 Bagdogra 0 0 - 0 0 -28 Madurai 0 0 - 0 0 -29 Gaya 0 0 - 0 0 - Total 306 163 87.7 2913 2388 22.0

Freight (in Tonnes) For the Month For the period April to NovemberS. No. Airport November 2012 November 2011 % Change 2012-13 2011-12 % Change

(D) 17 Domestic Airports 131 0 - 202 0 -(E) Other Airports 0 0 - 0 0 - Grand Total (A+B+C+D+E) 110402 117326 -5.9 949350 996403 -4.7

(A) 11 International Airports1 Chennai 18941 22966 -17.5 164433 188281 -12.7 2 Kolkata* 3390 3809 -11.0 28451 30805 -7.6 3 Ahmedabad 1047 946 10.7 8339 8110 2.8 4 Goa 413 283 45.9 1309 1074 21.9 5 Trivandrum 2656 4124 -35.6 29842 29513 1.1 6 Guwahati 7 0 - 7 0 -7 Calicut 2460 1858 32.4 18647 16276 14.6 8 Jaipur 8 9 -11.1 121 155 -21.9 9 Srinagar 0 0 - 0 0 -10 Amritsar 76 262 -71.0 1015 4396 -76.9 11 Portblair 0 0 - 0 0 - Total 28998 34257 -15.4 252164 278610 -9.5

* Estimated

News in Brief

TIACA’s ExecutiveSummit to focus on air cargo growth

The International Air Cargo Association’s (TIACA) Executive

Summit & AGM will be hosted by Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport between April 16-18, 2013. The theme of the 2013 Executive Summit is ‘Facing the Future Together.’ It will provide a unique insight into new ways of growing cargo business and increase in their profitability.

Commenting on the importance of the event, Daniel Fernandez, Secretary General of TIACA, said: “We are working in a world of unprecedented challenges and opportunities. At our Executive Summit, we will have leading experts on hand to give their opinions and advises on all the major issues affecting our businesses and industry, and to look at the most effective way to grow and protect ourselves and

our customers in what remains a volatile economic market.”

Daniel FernandezSecretary General of TIACA


Since its inception in 2009, Delex has developed an extensive distribution and delivery network across India. The company has presence in more

than 40 major towns and cities of India through a network of more than 80 PUDOs (Pick-Up and Delivery Operations’ centers). The company offers a wide range of supply chain services to the Indian industry.

Delex is a logistics and Supply Chain management company with significant presence in Cargo and warehousing domain. The company provides a total integrated Supply Chain solution to various industry clients with a vast experience in real-world logistics and supply chain. Delex provides a highly optimised and customised logistics solution for every client requirement with high focus on efficiency. The company has good amount of experience in managing wide varieties of goods ranging from consumer products, such as computers, electronics and grocery items to all the way industrial goods like sensitive equipment, expensive merchandise, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

This year, the company will focus on the growth of 3PL warehousing, forward

stocking locations to support spare part network distribution needs, domestic air cargo delivery and surface parcel delivery. Delex’s various services include Door-to-Door, Last Mile Delivery and Contract Logistics. The company recently entered into Cold Chain Transportation’ (CCT) business by deploying a dedicated fleet of over 37 trucks fitted with the state-of-the-art, PUF insulated refrigerated containers, data loggers and GPS systems for its automobile client in Kolkata.

Delex also offers tracking of temperature maintained in the container, besides providing the usual information on vehicle location and driving speed.

Logistics ServicesWarehousing

Delex wins Warehousing Excellence AwardDelex Cargo India added one more feather in its cap by receiving the ‘Warehousing Excellence Award’ at 2nd Asia Manufacturing Supply Chain Summit held in Mumbai on January 23, 2013. Recently, the company was also conferred with ‘Best Logistics Service Provider of the year-Air Freight’ at 6th ELSC Conclave held in Mumbai.


Industry EventsCII Logistics Summit 2013

The ‘Logistics Summit 2013’, which was held on February 15 and 16 in New Delhi and organised by the

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has once again reiterated several issues that prevent the growth of the logistics industry in India. Pardeep K. Sinha, Secretary, Ministry of Shipping and several other industry experts and professionals, addressed the Summit.

In his address, Cyrus Guzder, Chairman, CII Institute of Logistics Advisory Council & CMD, AFL emphasised on the role of logistics as a ‘game changer’ for the development of the country’s economy. “India has a huge potential of being manufacturing as well as logistics hub in this region,” he said. Currently, the industry is witnessing 8-10 per cent y-o-y growth.

“However, to sustain and increase the growth logistics infrastructure has to be strengthened with some serious initiatives. CII Institute of Logistics is working towards this goal,” he added.

According to Sukumar Narasimhan, Member, CII Institute of Logistics Advisory Council & Senior Vice President, Reliance Industries, to achieve long-

term goal (of being manufacturing and logistics hub) the sector needs industry status and a separate ministry for Supply Chain and Logistics. “Remove regulatory hassles, have more efficient physical infrastructure and simplify procedures,” he recommended.

Addressing the gathering as Guest Speaker, Pardeep K. Sinha, Secretary, Ministry of Shipping also emphasised on ease of regulatory environment and further capacity building. “It is of utmost importance for India to become competitive with the rest of the world and a logistics hub,” he endorsed.

In his opinion, infrastructure capacity building should happen in not only ports but also coastal shipping and inland shipping, as this will help reduce the high transaction costs in India.

“We need to plan decades ahead for Infrastructure planning and should not opt for sub optimal solutions. We need to emphasise on end-to-end logistics and in all modes of transportation,” he added. Sinha also urged for integrated initiatives by the policy makers and industry stakeholders to resolve issues pertaining to the end-to-end logistics industry.

Secretary Shipping appeals for a concerted effort to resolve logistics issues

Gandhi Automations is involved in importing, distributing and installing of entrance automation systems

and loading bay equipment, including CAMPISA dock levelers. The company offers a wide range of electro-hydraulic dock-levelers.

CAMPISA Dock-Levelers have been manufactured since 1975. Gandhi Automations also deals in Radius lip Dock-Levelers that allow the dock to connect with the truck-bed, therefore, making it possible to drive directly on and off with fork-lift trucks and roll containers. Telescopic lip Dock-Levelers are ideal for connecting vehicles unable to drive near the dock (e.g. sea containers, side loading railway wagons etc.), or where it is imperative to reach a

longer total length of the Dock- Leveler itself.

The CAMPISA Dock-Leveler is supplied with:

Platform and lip in almond anti-slip steel

Single effect lift cylinder, double effect lip cylinder

Safety stops in case of accidental departure of the vehicle

Maximum pressure valve Side foot protection steel sheets Rubber bumpers 300 mm x 55 mm x

60 mm Wall CONSOLLE containing the

whole drive unit and control, with low-level conduit protection, or motor underneath

Campisa Dock Leveler

Products & Services

Pardeep K. SinhaSecretary

Ministry of Shipping

Family AlbumClub Function

ACCD Picnic: A bid to strengthen the bond of cargo communityThe Air Cargo Club of Delhi (ACCD) recently hosted a ‘Family Picnic’ for its members and their families. The participants enjoyed a day-long function during chilled winter, thanks to the sunny weather. Various funfilled games and activities were organised for children and ladies. Delicious food items were the major highlights of the event.

WWW.CARGOTALK.IN


Family AlbumAgents Award/ Customers Meet

WWWCAR

Emirates SkyCargo recently felicitated its top performing cargo agents

from Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Ahmedabad

for their outstanding support throughout the year. They were

honoured at the gala dinner organised in

Jodhpur. Pradeep Kumar, Senior Vice President,

Cargo Revenue Optimisation, Emirates

was present at the event to felicitate agents.

Emirates SkyCargo honours top

agentsAhmedabad Agents

Delhi Agents

Kolkata Agents

Mumbai Agents

MJ Logistic Services, a leading third-party logistics solutions provider launched its customer relationship management initiative called ‘Access MJ at Gurgaon in NCR Delhi recently. Anil Arora, Managing Director and Amit Sarin, COO of the company interacted with customers during the function.

MJ Logisticsorganises ‘Access MJ’ for customer relationship


Air Cargo Club of Bombay hosts Annual Ball in élanThe Air Cargo Club of Bombay (ACCB) witnessed tremendous response from its members at its recently held Annual Ball function. Several organisations comprising airlines, airport & terminal operators and freight forwarders presented some attractive prizes to lucky draw winners at this mega event. The event was led by Richard Theknath, President, ACCB.







Family AlbumGet Together

host dinner to introduce HAROPASeahorse Ship Agencies‘Seahorse Ship Agencies, which represent the French port, ‘Port of Le Havre’ in India, recently, hosted industry meets for their customers at Chennai, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Mumbai to highlight benefits of HAROPA ports in France. Herve Cornede, Director Commercial and Marketing- HAROPA ports and Capt. RR Iyer, VP, Seahorse Ship Agencies were present on the occasions to showcase the ports.

Recently, a delegation of senior management team from HAROPA ports led by Herve Cornede, Director

Commercial and Marketing- HAROPA ports, visited India and conducted a series of business events at various cities in India. In an interview with Cargotalk, Cornede informed that the ports were keen to strengthen their presence in India by providing excellent infrastructure facilities and industry-friendly rules and regulations under a common platform for customs clearance.

However, these three ports are specialised in their respective fields and there would be a strong bond between them by sharing each other’s facilities/services and increase the volume of business. “It would also offer the cost benefits to our customers, about 20 per cent less than other European ports,” said Cornede.

He also maintained that the ports are offering complete logistics to its customers. For them, India has been strategic market in the Asia-Pacific region. Currently, there is a significant movement (both export and import) of furniture, garments, agro-products, and chemicals between India and HAROPA ports. Meanwhile, the ports have tied-up with the Shipping Corporation of India and are looking for more direct tie-up calls from India.

“As the first North-European port called at for world trade, the port complex enjoys an exceptional geographic location along the northern seaboard of France and irrigates the European market owing to the quality and fluidity of the connection networks,” asserted Cornede.

According to him, together HAROPA is the fifth biggest North-European port and positioned as a major maritime hub in Europe, equipped with a competitive and sustainable logistics system. “As it integrates the logistics chain from one end to the other, with an efficient and environment-friendly service to the hinterland, HAROPA offers comprehensive and high-performance solutions,” he added.

“We are connected to the whole world with a first-class international shipping offer, the ports of Le Havre, Rouen and Paris which generates a total of around 130 million tonnes of maritime and river trades. Owing to its land and reserves available, HAROPA provide its customers with areas dedicated to industrial and logistics installations,” Cornede further emphasised.

He informed that the ports of Le Havre, Rouen and Paris bring the Indian sub-continent closer to Europe. “The best transit times to rapidly serve the European market connecting, for example, Shanghai in 25 days, New York in 7 days, Singapore in 19 days and nearly 20 shipping lines are offering scheduled maritime services,” Cornede underlined. According to him, the Indian sub-continent is a first-class partner for HAROPA.


Shipping & PortsTrade Opportunities

HAROPA zooms in on IndiaOffering multimodal connectivity

HAROPA ports facilities HAROPA connects France, the second biggest European consumption market after Germany

Located in the heart of a market of 250 million consumers

Constitutes a smooth waterway and rapid access way to the European Greater West

Completed by a multimodal offer connected with the whole world

Connected with regular containerised services with all continents (500 ports of calls)

Proposed by more than 40 shipping lines owing to a choice of more than 100 services

Around 300 containerships with a capacity of more than 10,000 TEU received in 2012 in Le Havre

The synergies of Seine river ports of Le Havre, Rouen and Paris ports in France are grouped together under “HAROPA”, which is an economic interest group created in 2012 to provide end-to-end multimodal logistical solutions and facilitates the connectivity for maritime and multimodal trade flows with other European countries.

RATAN KR PAUL (L-R) Herve Cornede along with Linda Douet and Capt. RR Iyer


N ISAA especially emphasised on the issues related to longstanding and un-cleared containers and cargo

under investigation. The association also stressed on adequate hinterland connectivity and collective responsibilities to streamline cargo operations to and from the northern region of the country in particular. The inauguration of the Business Forum was addressed by a number of speakers from the government and the industry stakeholders, including representatives from ports, ICDs, CFSs, freight forwarders, CHAs and logistics service providers and container

train operators. Raghu Dayal, former MD, Concor delivered the keynote address and the Chief Guest of this event was Anil Gupta, MD, Concor.

The second business session, which was on ‘Seamless Integration of Service Providers’, emphasised on issues related to the northern region. This session was moderated by Capt. Ram Ramachandran,

Managing Director, and Red Eagle Shipping Agencies. Speakers included RR Joshi, Chairman, ACTL; Vishal Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, Gateway Rail Freight; D K Sen Sharma, COO - Container Terminals, Adani Ports and SEZ and Amanpreet Singh, MD, Satkar Logistics.

This session highlighted that the northern region receives and delivers containers from several ports involving complex movement by train, road and sea. Handling of these containers, require various ground facilities, including aggregation,

warehousing, holding, inspection, custom bonding, stuffing/de-stuffing of export / import (EXIM) and loading/unloading onto railway wagons. Infrastructure, which is lagging far behind the demand, is a major challenge in this region. The speakers urged coordination between all stakeholders for the creation of effective and seamless hinterland cargo movement.

Shipping & PortsNews Update

DHL Global Forwarding, the air and ocean freight specialist launches direct Less than Container Load

(LCL) services connecting Nhava Sheva in India with Lodz, Poland and Santos, Brazil. The introduction of these weekly direct LCL services ensure faster transportation of freight from Nhava Sheva to Lodz and Santos, due to shorter distances and reduced cargo handling. By offering a substantial reduction in transit time of 29 days from Nhava Sheva to Lodz and 38 days to Santos, DHL offers a consistent and a cost-effective ocean freight solution accompanied by reliable management systems that control shipping transactions and give full tracking visibility to its customers.

All LCL service comprises DHL’s IT solutions, such as DHL Track & Trace

and other tools to allow full visibility across the whole supply chain. DHL also facilitates insurance services to customers as a value-added service.

DHL currently operates the world’s largest LCL network with close to 2,000,000 cubic meters of LCL freight handled annually via 45,000 point-pairs.DHL carries more than 97 per cent of its total volumes in-house. The in-house systems and strong global network enables the control of cargo flow, information flow, speed, accuracy, cost efficiency and reliability. Going beyond port-to-port, LCL service also offers a complete end-to-end supply chain management that includes pick-up at origin, consolidation and deconsolidation and delivery at destination and customs clearance.

DHL launches direct LCL services from India to Poland, Brazil

NISAA urges for fast clearance at ICDs, CFSs and ports in IndiaIn its ‘Business Forum 2013’, which was held on February 8 in New Delhi, the Northern India Steamer Agents Association (NISAA) raised several burning issues pertaining to congestions at Inland Container Depots (ICDs), Container Freight Stations (CFSs) and ports in India.

Key issues Infrastructure at ICDs: Repairs, maintenance, and Parking for empties

Planning and announcing scheduled connectivity

Training of human resources Capacity building in marginalised sectors

Shippers and importer: misdeclaration, overweight, stuffing of undeclared goods, abandon of goods and manipulation of processes.

trfthCA

s

WWW.CARGOTALK.IN56 I CARGOTALK I MARCH 2013 WWW.CARGOTALK.IN56 I CARGOTALK I MARCH 2013

It is a fact that logistics is an unregulated industry with its advantages and disadvantages. Advantages are that for a short-term gain; a user of this industry

can accrue cost benefits by virtue of being unregulated. On the other hand, for the long-term objective such situation is disastrous and will definitely have a cascading effect on the economic growth of the country. “In the present environment of ‘Type-III’ partnerships with international markets, it is absolutely essential that our logistics industry rise up to the international standards and is over seen through a regulator. Verticals in the logistics industry, such as road transportation, freight forwarding and warehousing are totally disorganised and fragmented ranging from single ownership to limited companies,” Capt. Rishi pointed out.

According to him, India has a pool of talent, manpower and necessary intelligentsia but regrettably, it has not been channelised as in the other developed and emerging nations. The classic example is the garment industry. The entire major branded retailer outsources the production to India yet designs are not being developed in India. “It is a pity that we do not have skill development towards designing. In the context of skill development and with special focus on logistics, the situation is very disappointing,” he said.

Commenting on the issues related to attrition, Capt. Rishi observed that one of the important reasons for a high attrition rate in the logistics industry is tremendous shortage of skill/logistics related institutes, churning out adequate number of prospective candidates suitable for recruitment in the

diverse logistics sector. “The fundamental reason behind this is a total lack of awareness and importance given to the logistics industry. Government is largely to be blamed for this. Till recently, both the government and Boards of Private Companies managed logistics cost rather than using logistics as a tool for greater customer satisfaction and higher profits,” he argued.

He, however, feels that the situation is progressively changing and in the current competitive market, there is a constant pull from customers. Logistics has become a very important tool now. “Unfortunately, in the international marketing courses of various “B-schools” logistics is taught only as a passing reference. This lack of enthusiasm and importance to this industry has been responsible for the lack of enthusiasm in youngsters taking logistics as a carrier option. Presently, the government policies towards logistics are directionless and lack initiative,” he pointed out.

In Capt. Rishi’s opinion, in a situation like this, it is up to the respective organisation to impart necessary training and nurture a green horn into a logistics professional. Since qualified and trained professionals do not come out from various professional institutes, the industry is left with no alternative but to poach the required category from competitors. This poaching ranges from truck operations to freight forwarding to terminal operations to warehousing.

This scavenging can only be contained if there are sufficient dedicated logistics institutes of the level of the best “B-schools” in India and whose output commensurate with demands of the industry. “If this happens, then there would be a constant supply of competent logistics professionals. Logistics industry for youngsters on the threshhold of their career would therefore be a lucrative option rather than as the last bastion of career opportunities as being perceived today,” he maintained.

ViewpointCurrent Issues

An urgent need to offer world standard servicesThe present scenario of logistics industry in India is predominantly because there is no regulating agency to specify standards and processes. The situation is serious and the Government of India should create a Ministry of Logistics under which all logistics verticals should fall, says Capt. Sanjeev Rishi, MD, Sanjvik Cargo & Trading.

India has a pool of talent, manpower

and necessary intelligentsia but

regrettably, it has not been channelised as in

the other developed and emerging nations”

Capt. Sanjeev Rishi MD, Sanjvik Cargo & Trading

Ministry of Logistics


WCA Family is one of the leading freight forwarders network in the world with over 4,700 enrolled member freight

forwarder offices spanning across 720 cities and ports and 183 countries around the world. Meanwhile, more than 309 freight forwarders from the Indian sub-continent have been registered as delegates and it is estimated that numbers might increase to around 340 by the time the event commences. However, there is an increase of 18 per cent of membership as compared to the event held in 2012. Many of these companies have also taken their own exhibition booths.

“WCAF provides a wide range of benefits for the membership, from huge networking conferences, financial protection for each member, banking charges-free payment facilities, tailor-made IT solutions and special programmes with carriers, ” added Yokeum. According to him, the aim of WCAF is to provide the maximum benefits and networking opportunities for the members “We are here to help each company in every possible way and grow their business and expand into new markets. The success of WCA Family is proven by the continuing double digit growth in membership and an annual retention rate of over 96 per cent,” he claimed.

WCA Family Week in Bangkok will see over 2,400 members attending this event for networking and meetings. Over 100,000 individual meetings are pre-scheduled during

the week and huge business is expected to be generated. “In the current economic scenario, WCAF member companies have outperformed the market in terms of both volume growth and market share. Events like WCA Family Week are a vital tool in promoting and accelerating businesses for SME companies and working out innovative new ways to serve their customers,” said Yokeum.

According to Yokeum, by the time the conference opens, over 100,000 individual meetings have already been pre-scheduled through ACAF’s unique one-on-one meeting software. “This number is simply staggering and combined with a wide range of social networking events creating new business partnerships and increasing revenues,” he asserted. Yokeum also observed that the majority of the conferences will be held on individual basis. However, ACAF does include a plenary session and one of the major topics of the session will be new IT solutions to allow instant e-communications and electronic transfer of documents seamlessly between members and their customers, carriers and other sections of the supply chain. “This is vital to meet future security and e-freight requirements as well as providing cost savings for each member,” he argued.

WCAF has been a partner of the ‘Voice of the Independent’ publication and joined the Elite Association of Logistic Networks (ELITE), which as a group aims to represent the interests of the SME forwarder within major industry associations and regulators, such as IATA and World Customs.

Commenting on the potential of India as a source market for this conference, Yokeum said, “India remains a very

important market for WCA Family. We have our own membership support office in Mumbai, led by one of the WCA Family’s top executives. The office supports and assists all Indian members and works with them ensuring benefits and helps them grow their businesses by introducing new partnerships and client meetings.” WCA sees new membership growth from India in excess of 10 per cent per year.

International EventIn conversation

WCA Family Lures India as a source marketOver 2,500 independent freight forwarders will gather in Bangkok, Thailand from 3-10 March at the logistics event, ‘WCA Family Week’. Speaking to Cargotalk, David Yokeum, President, WCA Family informed that some 340 freight forwarders from the Indian sub-continent will take part in this global meet.

WCAF member companies have outperformed the market in terms of both volume

growth and market share”

David Yokeum President, WCA Family

RATAN KR PAUL

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