360 degree digitisation drive reshaping the Asia Pacific Air Freight management industry

TIFFA has been aggressively promoting e-AWB in Thiland during the pandemic to drive paperless trade amongst the SMEs. How has the Thai Logistic sector responded to this drive?

The application of digital technology in the Logistics industry has been growing during the pandemic times. More sectors are adopting digital technologies and reshaping their models in line with new digital transformation trends. The influence of digital transformation is fast becoming the cornerstone of sustainability strategies.

Thailand has reasserted its goal of becoming Southeast Asia’s air traffic hub. Air cargo has been hit hard by the global health crisis after witnessing a sharp slump in flights compared to the 2019 fiscal year. The volume of air cargo stood at 1 million tonnes, a decrease of 22.68% from last year. The Aviation industry has been encouraged by the change in policies by the government of Thailand. There is growing support and realisation in the industry that innovations and digitalisation are the keys to unlocking the future.

TIFFA has achieved a substantial growth volume of EDI transactions implementing Kale Logistics Solution’s e-AWB service. What has the journey been like and what do you see in the future of this service?

TIFFA brings digital e-AWB to support air freight management. The biggest achievement of e-AWB (Electronic Air Waybill) is the removal of paper air waybills completely and significantly simplified the air-freight supply chain movement.

This has been a path-breaking journey for TIFFA achieving many milestones along the way. There has been a crucial increase in the number of customers handled on this platform. We are confident that this platform will further facilitate trade, in addition to Thailand’s National Single Window for electronic transactions, which is emerging as a critical requirement for global trade. During the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 epidemic, TIFFA has been able to help the stakeholders to check the status of transmission 24 hours a day, simplifying the air freight supply chain.

Recently TIFFA and Kale Logistics Solutions have taken the first step towards digitising the Maritime sector in Thailand by introducing an e-DO platform. How do you see technology playing a pivotal role in future of the Maritime industry?

The Maritime industry is a crucial component of the global economy. Thailand is committed to enhancing its global partnership and supporting diversity.  Thailand is amplifying Maritime transport by raising the standard of Port operation. The epidemic situation of COVID-19 had a wide impact on a wide range of industries, and even the international shipping business was inevitably affected.

TIFFA recognises the urgent need to switch to digitalisation. It collaborated with Kale Logistics Solutions to promote paperless trade in the Maritime sector of Thailand through its integrated and comprehensive Port Community System (PCS). The platform reduces procedures and costs and increases the efficiency of document management in electronic format (Paperless) with complete accuracy, safety, and speed.  This solution offers an open integrated platform connecting all cargo stakeholders on a single platform for request, issuance of the invoice, secured digital payments, online submission of documents and issuance of e-DO. Electronic delivery order (e-DO), can be exchanged and checked 24 hours a day including, responding to various government measures to reduce contact or contact between personnel and documents reducing the risk of infection and the spread of the COVID-19 virus in another way. TIFFA is ready to stand by its stakeholders, and let’s go through this crisis together. It will strive to develop a comprehensive Logistics system and enhance the efficiency of the international freight forwarding business that is superior in all trade routes.

Air Cargo is a booming segment within the Airline industry and is swiftly focus from general cargo to highly specialised cargo verticals. How do you think, will Airport Cargo Community System assist the cargo industry to move with the times?

Over the past years, cargo visibility, reducing inefficiencies and the causes of manual documentation was considered bottlenecks. Truck congestion was another predominant issue causing operational delays. These challenges are addressed by a 360-degree digitalisation drive powered by technologies such as machine learning and AI. These technologies are offering cognitive as well as predictive capabilities to perform operations smartly. Now, an air cargo community system is slowly picking up pace globally.

The air cargo operations are expeditious, but it comes with a higher cost and a large number of secured processes within the Airport environment. Due to these secured functions, it is often a challenge for freight forwarders, transporters and others to know the milestone updates within the air cargo environment. Unfortunately, the lack of end-to-end updates leads to loss of cargo and is quite prevalent in regions such as North America and Europe. Loss of cargo reflects on the revenue of stakeholders such as freight forwarders and transporters.

Cargo Community System is a new-age tool that encourages communication among stakeholders on the landside and airside. A community system empowers all stakeholders to interact with each other to curtail the complexities involved in manual and legacy systems. Just by eliminating the communication bottleneck a significant number of complexities can be reduced, and all operations can be streamlined.