Tag: Air Cargo

Boom times gone for good?

Shippers have permanently turned their back on airfreight as the sophistication of their supply chain grows, reveals Robert Mellin, head of supply and logistics at Ericsson.

Speaking at the TIACA Executive Summit in Dallas, Mellin revealed the telecommuni-cations giant had a target this year of sending 80 percent of its products by surface freight, instead of the 20 percent it used to a decade ago.

"We achieved that last week," he said. Looking around the delegates, he added: "I cannot see any smiling faces here."Over 70 percent of Ericsson's logistics spend is on airfreight, despite it only accounting for 20 percent of its volumes. "Those numbers speak to me," said Mellin. "As a shipper, you are suicidal if you do not get rid of airfreight."

He explained the source of the company's shift: the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud in 2010. "I loved that volcano. We had to go from air to surface in one day. It forced us to think differently, to look for ways to go under the cloud. It forced us to find a new solution and forced the customer to have a dialogue with us about lead times. It worked. Then we realised we could swap between different modes without constraints and that gave us flexibility to adapt to other situations."

For the full story read the 29 April issue of Air Cargo Week (Link:  April 29 ACW)

Hello,

Our friends at the National Retail Federation and Airlines for America have shared a communication received this morning from Customs and Border Protection on the potential impact of sequestration on CBP operations.  CBP will be posting additional information on its website.

I spoke with Doug Brittin at TSA on Friday who said at this point, the sequester will have little impact on the agency's air cargo security division with validation and audit activity conducted as usual.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

To access the document, please clink here.

Brandon

The Airforwarders Association

(202) 393-2818

bfried@airforwarders.org

Hello,

I wanted to let you know about the impact of a potential sequester on cargo from what I have learned so far.

The sequester is a package of automatic spending cuts that is part of the Budget Control Act which was passed in August 2011. The cuts are projected to total $1.2 trillion and are scheduled to begin this Friday. Barring any compromise by Congress to avoid the cuts, the ones scheduled for 2013 totaling $109 billion will begin then.

So far, the TSA has not announced how the cuts will affect air cargo security enforcement. However initial predictions are that we will ultimately see its impact as passengers clearing security lines at airports.

CBP has been more active in communicating its planned cuts and says that they will be made equally across the agency with no preference by port of arrival. The first and most immediate cuts will be curtailing overtime for clearance personnel and then furloughs totaling 12 to 14 days that would begin after the first 30 days. The estimated cumulative impact could potentially be five-hour delays at land border crossings, passenger processing time may increase by about 50% and there will likely be an additional 5 days added to cargo inspections at ocean ports of entry.

CBP says that antiterrorism and security efforts will not be impacted. Passenger clearances will remain the first priority followed by cargo. Agricultural exams for incoming shipments should continue as usual. Also, there may be more risk-based calls made regarding other inspections and exams with less impact to trusted travelers and trusted traders. C-T PAT members will continue to receive priority treatment for exams when possible.

Non-mission critical expenditures such as travel and training for CBP employees will be curtailed but at this point we have received no information that this will have any impact on CBP and TSA leadership attending the upcoming air cargo 2013 conference.

I will keep you updated as new information is learned and hope that you will feel free to call me with any questions or comments.

Brandon Fried

The Airforwarders Association