ULDs are the oil that lubricates the air cargo industry, and just as if a gearbox is deprived of sufficient oil it will seize up, so the air cargo industry will seize up in the absence of sufficient ULD equipment in the right place at the right time.
With approximately one million pieces of ULD out there of which roughly 50% are PMC pallets, those responsible for making sure that sufficient right sizes and types of ULD are available at the right place at the right time face a daunting challenge.
And this challenge becomes greater when the processes for tracking the disposition of ULD assets around the world still largely rely on paper-based processes.
Here we are talking specifically about the ULD Control Receipt (UCR), a many decades old IATA standard, used in various forms to create a record when ULDs are transferred between parties.
No doubt perfectly adequate many years ago for airline to airline transfers, this process is now woefully out of date for recording the tens of thousands of transfers of ULDs from cargo terminal to off airport facilities, typically forwarders, which is a fundamental component of today’s air cargo operations.
ULD CARE has been aware of this problem for at least 10 years and has made a number of efforts to implement some form of digital solution.
Our initial efforts were hindered by the problem of legacy IT systems which made any kind of innovation pretty well impossible but in the last few years we have seen a great deal of new innovations which enable cost-effective development of digital solutions which is where ULD CARE is now with its E-UCR solution.
Furthermore, over the past few years just about anything and everything we all do in our day-to-day lives involves some kind of digital transaction or process, indeed many functions such as ordering food in the restaurant, buying a ticket on the bus or parking our car on a meter cannot be done in any other manner than digitally.
Against this background it makes absolutely no sense that the management of roughly one million ULDs should not function under the latest digital capabilities.
Actually, about five years ago saw the arrival of various ULD digital tagging solutions such as BLE, these were greeted with considerable excitement as they appeared to offer the opportunity to have a greater visibility of the whereabouts of the ULD and its contents.
However, uptake has been disappointingly slow, and we are probably decades away from universal adoption of this solution.
So why an E-UCR? Well, ULDs are expensive and essential assets of the air cargo trade. And just like any other form of business when an asset is transferred between two parties there needs to be some kind of recording.
When ULDs first entered the cargo scene five decades ago IATA designed the ULD control receipt, which has actually served its purpose very well, but a paper and pencil process has no role in today’s digital world, which is why ULD CARE has invested very considerable resources behind developing both the app and the back office administration and reporting platform.
The app runs on both iOS and Android, is available in respective stores.
Once downloaded onto a smartphone the user can log in with a pre-assigned username and password and then start recording the transfers of ULD through the app.
In addition to the traditional UCR data, ULD ID, date, time and place, receiving and transferring parties, ULD condition and UCR ref # the app makes use of the built-in cameras on all smart phones to record any damage on the unit.
The process then allows both parties to sign on glass and the data is transmitted to the back-office platform.
Here the transfer is instantaneously displayed on the screen, even though the transfer took place half way around the world, and the manager can choose to drill down into the details, even print a “soft” UCR in the paper format, and also an industry standard LUC message is sent to the airlines in house ULD control system.
The beauty of this solution is that everybody benefits with airlines regaining control of somewhere around 8 to 10% of the ULD inventory that is otherwise “off the reservation” at forwarders.
Yes, the airline knows how many ULDs are at a particular airport location, but they have no way to sort out how many are available in the terminal ready for use and how many may be many kilometres away and many days away from finding their way back to the cargo terminal.
Cargo terminals can replace a cumbersome and time-consuming paper-and-pencil based process with a digital “one click” solution, considerably reducing cost and complexity.
Freight forwarders benefit directly by being able to access online data showing what ULD assets are “on their tab”, and also indirectly as by regaining control of this segment of the fleet airlines will be better placed to ensure sufficient ULDs are available at the right place at the right time.
The E-UCR is of significant benefit to everybody by bringing efficiency and sustainability improvements that the entire industry needs to keep front and centre.
This article was published in the October 2023 issue of Air Logistics International, click here to read the digital edition and click here to subscribe.