Luchtvrachtcafé: Community commitment is paying off

Our first Luchtvrachtcafé of 2018 took place at the Schiphol’s head office in March, where the Cargo Community gathered to hear the latest updates on Schiphol’s Smart Cargo Mainport Program (SCMP).

This edition’s topics included:

  • Automated nomination
  • The Trucking app
  • The Holland Flower Alliance

Program manager Teunis Steenbeek introduced each project, and gave an overview of where we are now, as well as what the future holds for every initiative.

“The SCMP is moving forward”, he said, “and there is a strong commitment to make this program a success.”

Automated nomination

Thierry Huizing, project manager at Swissport Cargo Services, is closely involved in the pilot stage of the automated nomination initiative, and he joined us to explain the benefits of the nomination project.

KLM, Menzies, Swissport, and Worldwide Flight Services (WFS), and dnata have all confirmed their participation, and the scheme will be implemented across the Cargo Community soon.

Trucking app

“The trucking app has shown an improvement of our planning process, reduced congestion, and increased transparency of inbound trucking”, said Christiaan Snabel, Business Developer Smart Airport Data at Schiphol Group.

So how does the app work…?

Let’s say a trucker from Italy has a shipment for Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. With the trucking app, both the driver and the planner from the trucking company, can register the shipment into the portal, and relevant data for the airline and/or handler can be added.

Now, the handler knows who the trucker is, what kind of shipment it is and what time the trucker will arrive. Handlers will have complete visibility on inbound trucking movements, and can plan their own operations accordingly using real-time data.
In 2017 Schiphol Digital introduced www.schiphol.nl/developercenter. Passengers, airport operations, and cargo can take advantage of Schiphol’s data through APIs.

Dashboard Holland Flower Alliance (HFA)

Roel Huiden, Senior Supply Chain Consultant at Royal FloraHolland, gave an update on the latest development within the Holland Flower Alliance: the data sharing platform. Why do we need a HFA platform? In the flower supply chain there are several parties - horticultural parties, authorities, and logistic service providers. Each party has their own way of communicating with each other about different subjects. For example: horticultural parties talk with growers, handling agents, market places, and traders. While authorities have a different audience such as Customs and plant health, logistic service providers talk with freight forwarders, airlines, and ground handlers.
We sometimes see that various parties have varying information about what is happening in the supply chain. By establishing a data sharing platform accessible by all supply chain partners, we have created a better understanding about what happens at each stage in the flower supply chain. All shipment information is shared in this platform, giving access to flight information, shipment information on flower/goods level, inspection announcement, etc.

The next steps of the data sharing group are to strengthen and continuing the pilot, readying it for wider commercial use. More information on our data sharing platform can be found here.