Ensuring Movement of Pharma Freight through Air Cargo Community System at Times of COVID-19

The impact of novel COVID-19 is not an update someone wants to hear now. Even the damage it is going to cause to the world economy as well is known to many. The business scenario post COVID-19 as well is making rounds in all media publications.

But what people don’t hear is, how to keep the pharmaceutical supply chain running to ensure all countries are meeting their medical supply demands. Already, world nations are requesting India to approve shipment of Hydrochloroquine and after so many discussions with the authorities, India finally approved shipment of the first batch to world countries.

Likewise, several of these medical shipments need to be regularized to ensure none of the country in the world runs out of supplies. An air cargo community system can seamlessly facilitate this movement owing to its capabilities. Here are some possibilities that can facilitate regular functioning of pharmaceutical supply chains. 

Digitization of Regulatory Approvals & Clearance

The best possible scenario to have digitization in place is approvals and clearances obtained from regulators. This is a clear game changer in pharmaceutical supply chain as it will fast-track shipment delivery and ensure it reaches the people suffering from ailments. Already, developed and developing nations have widely implemented Single Window System for regulatory approvals. Yet, integrating them with a cargo community system will let the stakeholders reap the real benefits as it brings all operations into one frame.

No Data Inaccuracies & Redundancies

This is perhaps a very generic benefit to discuss here. Yet, ensuring data accuracy is quite a task for ground handlers and forwarding agents. For example, several ground handlers always complain on revenue leakage due to inconsistent data being interchanged. Due to these inaccuracies, handlers have been facing revenue leakages. Whereas, with a system that can connect all of them in one frame, transparency of data interchanged is pretty high. Therefore, there is no question of inaccuracies and most importantly, there is no revenue leakage.

Seamless Information Exchange

Every stakeholder is possibly utilizing a software such as an ERP or even a CRM. But these are meant to share data within a handler or a forwarder’s business process. Also, they do not integrate with each other. This is a major challenge for data interchange. Moreover, this led to a scenario where inconsistencies and inaccuracies existed in the operations. To overcome this, cargo community system is quite essential. Its ability to integrate with all ERPs and CRMs is the best possible example to mention. Major airports in the world, have implemented a cargo community system to facilitate seamless data interchange.

On a brighter side, already major airports in the world are keen and have already implemented a cargo community system. In this time of need, governments are realizing, air cargo’s benefit of quick delivery. Moreover, the movement of these pharma shipments are taking place in between countries that have given importance to implementing this to simplify their operations. Going forward, post the COVID-19 outbreak, we can expect a splurge of digitization activities happening in the logistics space as many are realizing its importance. Even though, the world is in a lockdown due to COVID-19, business continuity can still happen.