Working Overtime: How air cargo is adapting to ACAS, ELD rules

Growing pains

“As an international forwarder, I have counted the number of agencies we must comply with and report to. The overlap and the sheer number of compliance processes that we are supposed to comply with are, to my way of thinking, excessive, and increasingly difficult for anyone to be fully compliant,” said Brian Anderson, CEO of Anderson Cargo, a U.S.-based 3PL. Anderson listed the TSA, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) as some examples – and the recital of acronyms didn’t stop there.

ACAS is the latest addition to a growing list of regulations that firms like Anderson Cargo must comply with in order to do business. While companies knew about these requirements years in advance, the process of seeking out third parties to help facilitate the changes in companies’ foundational operations continues to be a major feat for affected parties.

Carriers have until June 2019 to comply with ACAS before penalties begin to kick in. Avianca Cargo, which operates multiple routes connecting Latin America to the U.S., is gearing up for the changes, telling Air Cargo World it is in the final stages of selecting its IT partner and is on schedule to close any gaps before June. Like other airlines, the company is anticipating that the project will be a significant investment of time and resources.

The crux of the ACAS issue is that the air waybill (AWB) information in question must be shared hours earlier in the supply chain process and it must be in digital form. While many larger carriers and forwarders are well-equipped to handle this change, some smaller firms that still rely on paper-based AWBs are balking at the added expense of the necessary upgrades.

“Although ACAS seeks to increase the safety and security of the airfreight supply chain, it’s an additional process that will require anticipation, resources, attention and control,” said Carlos Arango, commercial director of Avianca Cargo.

Road ruckus

Similar to the ACAS framework, the ELD mandate sprang from an altruistic objective: to reduce the number of fatalities of truckers who fall asleep behind the wheel and crash. Truck drivers and delivery workers had the highest number of workplace fatalities in 2016 – more than any other occupation – according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. ELDs are thought to address the problem by preventing drivers from falsely reporting their hours, a common practice that allows drivers to work around regulations that aim to ensure they don’t drive while sleep-deprived.

The initiative was, unsurprisingly, not received well by many stakeholders in the industry. Trucking companies shuddered at the potential investment associated with contracting suppliers of the hardware and implementing usage policies for drivers. Logistics company Hassett Express was directly affected by the mandate, having implemented the digital logging devices into its fleet of trucks prior to the deadline. CEO Michelle Halkertson said that while they are happy with their ELD hardware and service provider, the implementation process came with inevitable hiccups, like software glitches. “If it happens when they’re back in the office, that’s one thing, but if they’re out on the road, they need to switch to a paper log,” she said, which means extra time if the company were to transpose the log electronically later.

As a result, the mandate has forced truck driving companies to extend the time they allocate for certain trips. “Because of the mandate, some of the runs that might have gotten done in a day – 500- to 600-mile [trips] – are now taking two days,” said Brian Hodgson, senior vice president of product strategy at Descartes. This extra time raises the cost per trip significantly, he added.