During the Air Cargo session of the Future of Logistics conference, moderator Lars Jensen asked the panellists if air carriers needed to design their processes better to ensure integrity of their cargo, particularly temperature controlled cargo.
To this, TLME Chairman Joe Beydoun replied that the air cargo supply chain was complicated with many different parts and players. But more often than not, the blame for damaged or missing cargo was laid squarely at the doorstep of the carriers.
Mr Beydoun said that the problem with temperature-controlled products was not new and existed well before the pandemic.
However, added Mr Beydoun, the pandemic had caused everybody in the air cargo supply chain to look at the cold chain with fresh eyes and a new more serious perspective. Laxity in maintaining the integrity of cold chains today, particularly for vaccines and pharma products, has becoming a “life threatening” issue.
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Having been in the air cargo industry for a long time, Mr Beydoun said he understood that some freight forwarding and logistics companies tended to take “short cuts” to save money and when things went wrong with their cargo they conveniently shifted the blame on to the airlines.
Mr Beydoun then threw a curve ball saying that despite freight forwarders and airlines being fully certified to carry temperature-controlled cargo the problem lay in the training and consequent attitude of the individuals who actually handled temperature-controlled cargo.
“It could be anyone in the supply chain. It could be the shipper, it could be the freight forwarder, it could be the ground handler but it’s always easy to blame the airline,” said Mr Beydoun who concluded by adding: “I hope we actually look at ourselves first and ask what am I doing to meet the challenges and make sure that I am compliant?”
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