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Issue 8 2014 - Freight Business Journal


Bordeaux completes the century for IAG Constant Climate


Bordeaux had the honour of being the 100th station to be opened in IAG Cargo’s Constant Climate network, the joint British Airways-Iberia carrier’s specialist service for time- and-temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical products. The south-west French station’s opening follows inauguration of other new stations at Nairobi, Hong Kong, Shanghai and most recently Osaka. Stockholm will be the 101st station, planned to open later this month. IAG Cargo’s global head


of pharmaceuticals and life sciences, Alan Dorling (pictured) says that the global pharmaceutical market “is growing at a blistering speed – more than 5% per year in fact. This is a huge opportunity for our own growth and one which, through our Constant Climate network, we are in a superb position to exploit. We have one of the strongest offerings in the market and we look forward to supporting global pharmaceutical businesses in getting their goods to patients wherever they are, while adhering to the highest industry standards.” IAG Cargo says its Constant


Climate product is one of the most extensive precision temperature control offerings on the market. Each new station, which completes a series of training modules and quality audits before being added to the network, provides customers with a quality assured service that can support temperature requirements as low as minus 20˚C and as high as 25˚C. This


gives pharmaceutical shippers complete peace of mind that with IAG Cargo their precious cargoes are in safe hands. Bordeaux is a leading centre


for the biotech industry, says IAG Cargo’s regional commercial manager for Europe, Chris Nielen. “We see lots of potential for firms that don’t want to bring product to Paris” - though the latter is also a Constant Climate station. Constant Climate shipments can be trucked direct to Madrid – a relativelly short distance away – or to London and, at times to Paris, from where they can be flown on A300 freighters to London. There are also regular A319


passenger flights from Bordeaux to London, but with their relatively limited cargo capacity, their main interest is for IAG Cargo’s new Euroconnector fast guaranteed service for shipments up to 300kg. Euroconnector aims to maximise the use of the IAS carriers’ short-haul network in Europe, offering time-definite 24-48-hour service from places like Bordeaux all over Europe, as well as fast connections onto IAG’s long haul services from London or Madrid. “It can be much faster than by truck, and at a competitive price,” Nielen explains. It could also appeal to


customers in the smaller cities of Europe, not only Bordeaux, but also, as far as France is concerned, Nice, Toulouse, Marseilles, Lyon and Mulhouse which don’t always lie on the main trucking groupage routes and consequently have longer


///FRANCE


French forwarding giant is agile too


Tonnage-wise, the French freight market may be fairly flat at the moment, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t without interest, says Kim Pedersen, executive vice- president of one of the country’s largest international forwarding an logistics concerns, Geodis Wilson. The


key to staying


profitable is being smarter and more innovative, he explains. One manifestation of Geodis


and less frequent links to the rest of Europe. Many of the smaller airports benefit from rapid ground handling. The South American


connection via Madrid is also attractive. A shipment despatched from, say, Mareseilles to London in the morning can be on the afternoon flight to Madrid and loaded onto an evening flight to South America that same day – far quicker than could be achieved by truck from Marseilles to Madrid, says Nielen. In time, the availability of


the Euroconnector product could open up completely new markets for airfreight, as well as giving IAG a competitive edge over other airlines. The airfreight market in


France is meanwhile a little stagnant, with tonnage for August down though revenue is up. That, says Nielen is a good sign that the product mix is changing, and he points out that the market is no longer just about tonnage – yield and revenue are equally important as IAG seeks out better-paying, premium cargo.


Wilson’s way of thinking are the two major gateways being built at the main French container port of Le Havre and at the country’s biggest airfreight gateway, Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. These new 10,000sq m platforms are customs bonded, an important feature for many Geodis Wilson customers – and not only that, but they are also a repository for much of the forwarder’s in-house customs expertise, as part of its policy of consolidating certain types of expertise in specific locations. The French customs system has its quirks and Geodis Wilson’s expert knowledge helps customers to find the best way through it. Le Havre is the entry port for


large container vessels and the new site will also act as a hub for the French West Indies which, while they may appear as only small dots on the world map, are surprisingly large markets. “Places like Guadeloupe, St Maarten and Martinique import almost everything and they have very strong links to companies rooted in France,” Pedersen explains. The Charles de Gaulle site


is fully TAPA- (Transported Assets Protection Association) certified and will major on high value, fashion and luxury goods, which are such an important part of the French economy and account for a large percentage of the country’s exports. Another advantage that


Geodis Wilson can offer its customers is on-forwarding by greener modes of transport, namely train and barge,


from


the French ports. The company is part of the Geodis Group, which is owned by SNCF, also owner and operator of the French railways, and as such it can offer the necessary volume and economy of scale to successfully operate train


services between Le Havre, Marseilles and other ports and the major French cities. Pedersen estimates that around 80 containers are needed per train to make this mode fully competitive, and only large multimodal service providers like Geodis can offer this sort of volume to the train operators. “Around 30% of our volume is now not by truck but by train or barge,” he says. Canal links are available from Le Havre to the Seine and right into the very heart of Paris. Large French firms are paying


much closer attention to the environment


and, besides


being ‘greener’, one advantage of shipping by rail or barge is that you can ship closer to the customer and store goods at private terminals rather than at the port – and, in many cases, you can negotiate free storage time at the terminal. This can be an advantage if, for example, you need to store something like garden furniture for a few weeks in the winter before demand starts to pick up.” Continuing the green


theme, Geodis can, through the ‘Distripolis’ service of its distribution and express divisions (Geodis Calberson), offer green distribution for instance in Paris. Geodis Wilson is


looking at expanding this


offering to other ‘megacities’ like Shanghai or Mexico, with bikes and smaller vehicles providing the last-mile delivery to the customer. “Paris is often extremely congested, and it’s getting very hard to get large trucks in and out of the centre.” E-commerce has really


surged in France over the past few years, and here also Geodis is in a good position to satisfy this demand; its France Express service offers the only twice- daily delivery service all over France, for instance. While the total freight market may be stagnant, for e-commerce deliveries it is a different story, growing by around 14% a year at present. Possibly because it is a


country of long distances and, in the case of Paris at least, serious urban congestion, French consumers have leapt at the chance to have their goods delivered either to their


homes or the network of 4,300 delivery points that have sprung up across the country. “We’re moving smaller items, and we’re moving them faster. E-commerce really is a game- changer.” It will mean forwarders more


getting intimately


involved in their customer’s supply chains, for example labelling and packing goods at origin in China for delivery to customers in Europe. Online customers


increasingly want


flexible delivery and this will be reflected in Geodis’ service offerings. “The old pattern of importing twice a month and storing goods for weeks has completely broken down now,” is Pedersen’s analysis. “We see a bright future for value-added logistics.” The search for added value


could even take Geodis Wilson outside what have been though of as supply chain activities. It is working on a range of projects, many of them suggested by its employees


through internal


innovation programs, one of which is an analysis of 3D printing and its potential for the logistics market. It’s not yet clear how this will evolve, but if it, one day, should replace physical movements of certain spare parts, components or even high-fashion clothing over long distances, Geodis would clearly like to be part of that change. Another possible area of advantage


competitive is


data management. Like many logistics providers, Geodis Wilson is often told by its customers that it knows more about their supply chains than they do themselves – and, with the proliferation of data- capturing devices like hand held meters or mobile phones, sources of data are becoming more, not less fragmented. But anyone who can assemble all this information and analyse it via a robust global platform will be in a powerful position to help companies analyse their activities and make important strategic


decisions. Geodis


Wilson is just introducing its answer to this challenge to the market, with its IRIS platform. Kim Pedersen says: “This is our next step to become a true growth partner for our clients.”


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