Jettainer, Lufthansa developing ‘digital’ ULDs to increase transparency

Jettainer and IT specialists at Lufthansa Industry Solutions are working to develop a digital container that can “measure temperature changes, shocks and other external factors independently and provide information about its state.” Both partners are subsidiaries of the Lufthansa Group, and Jettainer is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lufthansa Cargo AG.

The containers under development will “accelerate maintenance and control procedures,” the developers announced. They also offer an increased level of transparency, and make it possible to determine who was responsible for damage to the ULDs.

Lufthansa Industry Solutions is betting that these new features will motivate companies along the transport chain to use the high-tech ULDs with greater care, reducing damage and maintenance costs.

“The intelligent container will ensure greater transparency within the process chain in the future,” said Carsten Hernig, managing director of Jettainer GmbH. “We’re deliberately breaking new ground here in order to make our services for customers even more efficient in future.”

The ULD development comes from a recent initiative by Lufthansa to light a fire under its business development division to address produce higher revenues in the currently flat air cargo market. Monika Wiederhold, vice president of product management and innovation at Lufthansa Cargo, has been instrumental in the founding of a separate innovation department, explaining that doing so was a matter of “securing the future.”