This application is transforming the process of delivering air cargo to Heathrow airport, while steadily gaining traction elsewhere within the industry.
Well documented peak-time delays at Heathrow’s outdated cargo terminal have been a fact of life for some years now. Lack of on-airport truck parking, narrow approach roads and tight manoeuvring space for today’s larger articulated vehicles frequently leads to long truck queues backing up on to the airport’s perimeter road, leaving trucks and drivers tied up unnecessarily for hours.
Two years ago, the CCS-UK User Group (the body which represents all users of the UK’s air cargo community computer system, CCS-UK) announced that it was starting work on a new module to enable freight agents, and transport companies working on their behalf, to pre-alert handling agents of loads being delivered and picked up, down to House AWB level, as well as submit Electronic Consignment Security Declarations (e-CSD).
This advance information, including vehicle, driver, cargo being delivered, handling agent and ETA, would then be submitted either through a Web portal or messages sent direct from the forwarder’s own system. The information then becomes accessible to all relevant parties in the supply chain.
AIS has now been live for around a year and although it is still subject to ongoing development, it is already in use with a growing number of hauliers, handlers and forwarders.