CARGO 2000 pushes forward in its quest to improve quality of air cargo industry

Cargo 2000, a group of 25 major airlines and freight forwarders seeking to implement a new quality management system for the worldwide air cargo industry, has announced the first stage of performance data for its members. Network flown as planned performance – joint airline and forwarder performance that does not reflect the party responsible for the underlying service failure – averaged 90% in May 2005, while Cargo 2000’s quality measurement for “FWBs Correct” was 85%. Over the past eight months, flown-as-planned measured by Cargo 2000’s members has improved by 8% and FWB (freight waybill) data has been enhanced by 32%.

During May, Cargo 2000’s members measured performance across 16,800 lane segments worldwide and created 148,797 route maps for shipment movements. In February 2006, Cargo 2000 plans to begin publishing ‘net net reports’ that will show the individual performance of members.

“We are at a stage where we have to move forward and that is really about starting to publish results,” says Mick Fountain, Cargo 2000’s chairman. “We know there will be good news and bad news in the monthly data we report but we need transparency around the information we are producing and how we are meeting deadlines for the future to actually achieve our goal.

“We are working in a very complex environment trying to get one platform for the whole industry, not just in terms of the sheer scale of what we have to do but also because we work in a very fragmented industry. Cargo 2000 is the prime initiative to bring the air cargo industry together but there is still a long way to go.

“However, there cannot be anybody who could intellectually argue against having one common platform for the transfer of information for the air cargo industry with total transparency.”

To date, Cargo 2000 members have contributed over 3,000 man days to develop technical specifications. The group’s suppliers have invested a further 8,000 man days in bringing the system to life and this, in turn, enabled some 150,000 route maps to be created last month with over 1.4 million quality checks made as these shipments moved to their destinations.

KLM Cargo currently accounts for 25% of shipments and lanes reported. It uses Cargo 2000 standards to monitors all traffic between 56 stations worldwide, representing 35,000 shipments per month.

Bram Graeber, KLM’s senior vice president commercial, says, “Cargo 2000 is sharpening our internal discussions on quality reporting and quality improvement and good quality always delivers greater efficiency. We can also see how improved transparency is helping in relationships with our customers. I do believe there is some gain to be made from a customer preference point of view because it makes KLM Cargo easier to do business with.

Since September 2003, Kuehne + Nagel has handled every shipment in its network under the Cargo 2000 phase 2 process. It is the only process the company uses today to handle airfreight shipments. Roland Bischoff, senior vice president global airfreight at K+N, comments, “Our aim is to standardize and optimize the air freight process because higher efficiency translates into increased profitability. To have a globally standardized process allows us for the first time to measure and compare the quality of service delivery to our clients, of our service providers and internally throughout our network. This is leading to an overall increase in customer satisfaction.

Announcing the flown-as-planned performance data, Wolfgang Schmitz, vice chairman of Cargo 2000 and senior vice president – head of corporate development at Lufthansa Cargo, says, “Members are now certified at 350+ stations and one or more members are measuring performance in 95 cities. A year ago we were measuring 4,000 trade lanes and today this figure is 6,000 and continuing to grow. We are reporting 60,000 master air waybills per month – a 20% year-on-year increase – and approximately 300,000 house air waybills.

“We have introduced a network plan to provide a structured approach to rolling out Cargo 2000 globally. We are measuring performance to and from major hubs and then connecting them all together. Today, we are measuring performance to and from Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Vienna, Paris, Vancouver, Chicago, Seoul, Hong Kong, Toronto, Singapore, Milan, Los Angeles, Zurich and New York. By the end of 2005, we will have added Brussels, Atlanta and Bangkok. We have also started to create local Cargo 2000 associations to spearhead our development in these markets.

“90% flown as planned and 85% FWB’s Correct are not the figures we would like to see accomplished in the long-term but at least at the beginning we have achieved these levels. All parties in Cargo 2000 are working diligently to ensure performance continues to improve over time.”

Cargo 2000’s forwarder members are progressing with phase 2, which should be implemented by everyone by the end of the third quarter of 2006. Phase 3 – shipment planning and tracking at piece level – will be implemented in conjunction with IATA’s e-freight program.

Cargo 2000 members: ABX LOGISTICS, Air Canada, Air France Cargo, Alitalia Cargo, American Airlines, Austrian Airlines, British Airways World Cargo, Cargolux Airlines International, Cathay Pacific Airways, DHL Danzas, Delta Air Logistics, Exel, Geologistics, Korean Air, Kuehne & Nagel, KLM Cargo, Lufthansa Cargo, Nippon Cargo Airlines, Panalpina, Polar Air Cargo, SAS Cargo, Schenker, SDV/SCAC, Singapore Airlines Cargo, SwissWorld Cargo, Trans-Trade Inc., United Airlines, Yusen Air & Sea.

www.cargo2000.com