Weekly Wrap: Air cargo tech upgrades during COVID-19

This week, Air Cargo World published its second June feature story on digital payment platforms, how airlines and forwarders view this emerging technology, and how ongoing lawsuits between the major players in this space could affect the future of this corner of air cargo digitalization. Meanwhile, other areas of digitalization are doing well despite the COVID-19 pandemic, indicating a shift in industry thinking about the importance of investments in technology. In express news, DHL opened its first U.S. company-owned retail store. The European express giant has limited its own operations in the U.S. for more than a decade, after a foray into domestic parcel operations led to years of substantial losses. Find this and more in this week’s edition of the Weekly Wrap, featuring Editor Caryn Livingston and Senior Editor Charles Kauffman, for the week ended June 26, 2020. A transcript is available on the next page. This transcript has been generated by software and is being presented as is. Some transcription errors may remain. Charles Kauffman 0:01 Hello, everyone and welcome to this week's edition of Air Cargo World's Weekly Wap. I'm Charles Kauffman, Senior Editor, and I'm joined today by Air Cargo World editor Caryn Livingston. Hey Caryn. Caryn Livingston 0:11 Hey, Charles. Charles Kauffman 0:13 We're here today to discuss this week's biggest stories. And just as a note for those listening, the audio file of this recording will be posted as a podcast on the On Air with Air Cargo World brand. So looking back at this week saw the publication of our second June feature story on air cargo payment settlement systems. And we showed how digitalization has been slow on the on the cargo side, particularly compared to passenger operations. You know, does this hold true for for payment systems as well? Caryn Livingston 0:47 Yes and in 2020, that's the case for payment systems in particular compared to other areas of air cargo operations. Over the past couple of years areas of digital realization that have lagged for years or decades even airway bills, for example, are finally seeing more widespread adoption. Digital booking and dynamic pricing have also increased during the pandemic and we're accelerating even before that, but payment platforms are still behind. And this is a newer technology. And those airlines and forwarders We spoke with for the future, see the value in online payments with the growth of e commerce and online billing in general, just in our day to day lives. Most people today are comfortable making payments online. But the adoption for air cargo just isn't quite there yet. And that's not necessarily because the technology isn't available. There are a couple of companies that provide this technology like PayCargo and CargoSprint, and we cover both of those in the feature. But as air cargo operators are just now updating their technologies and streamlining the number of apps Applications and use across their networks. There's still a lot of processes to digitize before it makes sense to make digital payments to standard. But based on the discussions we're having, I expect this area of digitalization will ramp up in the years ahead. Charles Kauffman 2:18 Right And certainly, we're seeing that the COVID-19 pandemic is has been a catalyst for acceleration on some of these trends. So perhaps payments will be one area of focus moving forward. So better car the world also covered other technology trends this week, in a look at how digitalization is rolling out during the pandemic. Did anything surprise you about tech adoption over the past year? Caryn Livingston 2:48 Definitely. Because digitalization has been such a slow process for air cargo compared to the passenger side of aviation operations. I certainly questioned Whether priorities would shift during the pandemic. And mostly because adoption of new technology platforms and the work required to roll them out across these networks can be pretty expensive both from a cost perspective and in terms of the employee efforts required. But the major exporters and airlines were speaking with clearly see the adoption of some of this technology, especially as far as track and trace tech and cargo management systems go as a necessity if they hope to remain competitive in this market. Charles Kauffman 3:35 But technology isn't the only thing you covered this week. What are some of the other trends that surfaced or emerged this week? Caryn Livingston 3:44 One interesting item that stood out to me during the week was DHL. His decision to open his first company own retail store in the US that opened in Florida on June 24, this past Wednesday. DHL, of course has more than 7000 independently owned service point partner locations in the US but this is the first DHL owned location. This was interesting to me because DHL Express, of course withdrew from domestic operations in the US more than a decade ago now, back in 2009, after losing a lot of money with its domestic parcel operations for several years, and as well as the Florida store that just opened DHL also said it will open a second company-owned retail store in Chicago later this summer. And both of these locations would feed parcels into DHL's international network because Miami is a gateway into the Latin American market and DHL has facilities for four of its five divisions based in Chicago, that includes DHL Express, DHL global forwarding, and DHL e-commerce solutions. DHL Express also said that there are planning to add about 400 jobs in the US. This isn't just related to DHL, express operators overall right now are seeing a surge in volumes related to e-commerce as well as PPE shipments and we'll continue watching how DHL plans to grow its U.S. business in the months ahead. Charles Kauffman 5:22 I think there there are many interesting components to track in the future with with DHL not only on the the import export side but also in terms of capacity management with belly hold capacity still unreliable at this point. Um, you know what I'm looking ahead to to next week. What can we look forward to reading on Air Cargo World? Caryn Livingston 5:48 Well, we featured a frequent coverage of the topic you just mentioned how airlines and charter operators are responding to air cargo capacity shortages with so many people passenger aircraft grounded during the pandemic. And those shortfalls have in some cases made it pretty difficult for freight forwarders to secure capacity, even accounting for block space agreements. So in the weeks ahead, we'll be speaking with regional quarters to gauge how things are continuing to evolve across the major trade lanes in the US, as well as along some of the major international trade lanes, such as the trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific lanes. Charles Kauffman 6:29 It sounds interesting, I'm certainly quite eager to see how trade lane capacity evolves in the weeks ahead. So those of you listening that concludes our discussion for today. We'll be back next week with more excellent coverage. Thank you everyone for joining and don't forget you'll find all of the stories we've discussed here today on AirCargoWorld.com. Caryn Livingston 6:52 Thank you.

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