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Issue 4 2015 - Freight Business Journal Air France KLM has e-commerce sorted


Air France KLM Martinair’s Sodexi express handling arm, together with the Geopost postal group have invested €20 million in an airside sorting facility at its Paris Charles de Gaulle hub to handle an expected boom in small parcel and express freight. HubExpress will cater mainly for aircraſt to aircraſt transfers and, being only five minutes away from the passenger aircraſt stands, will be able to cut plane to plane times to three hours or less, say Air France KLM executives. Freight consignments of up


to 32 kilos will be automatically sorted at a rate of up to 6,000 parcels an hour. While this is well below the sorting rates achieved by the integrators – many of whose hubs can achieve 30,000 parcels/ hour or more – HubExpress is not intended to compete with them, said vice president express and postal solutions Beatrice Delpuech. The main target is the air to air transit market, enabling Air France KLM to fully exploit its extensive world network and offer connections between Africa, Asia, the Middle East, the Americas


and Europe, she told a press conference to launch the new hub on 21 May. The new facility should put an


end to the situation in which freight consignments could spend more time on the ground than in the air. It will help the carrier exploit new markets in e-commerce in line with changes in the airfreight market, which is moving away from large, relatively slow-moving consolidated freight to smaller express packages. The new hub will also cater for Air France KLM’s Airport to door business, as well as the postal and express traffic that it handles on behalf of the integrators. It also makes it feasible to collect a consignment at 18.00 in Hong Kong and deliver it to a consignee’s door in Europe by noon the following day. As well as its closeness to the


aircraſt compared with the express facility that it replaces, HubExpress also uses the latest barcode techology to automatically sort cargo. Inbound pallets and container are broken down, sorted and reconsolidated into outbound containers and pallets or, where


New cargo chief to


London Heathrow’s new head of cargo, Nick Platts – the first appointee to such a role for about two decades – has been tasked with squeezing more business through an airport that is, essentially, full up. Platts, who was previously head


appropriate, van and truckloads or loose-loaded airfreight. Initially, the new hub will cater


for Air France, KLM and Martinair traffic, but in time it could also handle business from other carriers in the Skyteam alliance of airlines. A soſtware solution will have to be found, said executive vice president Bram Graber, but it might be possible to develop the Skylink system currently used by the Skyteam passenger business. While HubExpress is believed


to be the first freight sorting system to be developed by an airline, Air France KLM has considerable experience of similar systems for handling passenger baggage.


Calais under siege >> 1


truck parking space, more cooperation


was needed at EU level to tackle the root causes of the problem. There is a widespread belief in the industry that the French authorities are failing to take stiffer action against any immigrants they catch - for example by repatriating them – and instead allowing them to make multiple attempts


to


board Dover-bound trucks and so become a UK rather than a French problem. Both the RHA and the FTA feel that the French authorities could and should do more to step up perimeter patrols at the Calais port and Eurotunnel terminal. Peter Cullum stressed that


it was important that truck operators adhered to the Code of Conduct agreed between the haulage industry and the Home Office about ten years ago. Drivers should be carrying out regular walk round checks in any case to ensure that their vehicles were free from defects and this would include looking for any suspicious activity. Moreover, he pointed out, “while the port provides a checking


service, this does not – as commonly believed absolve the driver from all responsibility if they don’t adhere to the code of conduct.” Other suggested measures to


reduce the risk of stowaways is to avoid stopping near the ports if possible and to use only secure truck parking areas. Sealing the vehicle with a TIR cord – whether or not it is travelling under TIR status – is also an excellent idea. While none of these measures provide an absolute guarantee that migrants will not get abroad, taken together they should provide a reasonable level of security. BIFA director general Robert


Keen described recent scenes in Calais as “the worst we have ever witnessed. Our members’ cross channel trailer services are being directly targeted by the migrants putting the security of drivers, vehicles and customers’ loads at risk.” He warned that there is a real chance that drivers and truck operators would refuse cross-Channel work, “due to the personal and financial risks that they and their staff are now taking”. Don Armour said that there was already anecdotal


evidence that East European drivers were turning down UK jobs. Keen said: “We are pressing


the authorities to step up their protection of the routes across the Channel and fulfil their obligations to let trade move unhindered before serious damage is done to this strategic freight route.” Michael Person, a driver for


Dewsbury-based forwarder Maru International said that he been threatened with an iron bar when he attempted to alert the driver of another truck that people were trying to break into his vehicle. He told the Look North programme: “It is only a matter of time before someone is killed or seriously injured. His boss, managing director


Vaughan Woolfitt, said that he was having to consider switching traffic away from Calais to ports such as Rotterdam or Zeebrugge (the stowaway problem is currently much less serious in Belgium and the Netherlands). However, Don Armour said that there had been a few reports of some migrants trying to board trucks in other French ports such as Caen and Cherbourg.


Some of the features of the new cargo hub originated in the passenger side of the business. Graber added that a similar


hub might be developed at KLM’s main hub at Schiphol but it would have to await the redevelopment of the cargo area, expected within the next few years. The Paris hub is also capable of expansion, although it is currently operating well within its maximum capacity. Meanwhile, the Paris hub was “an inspiring example,” he said.


of ground handling at Heathrow, will be expected to come up with innovative solutions to close the gap with European gateways “as much as possible within the current environment.” However, the airport


authority acknowledges that with Heathrow now operating at capacity, many shippers and forwarders oſten choose to send freight through Amsterdam and Frankfurt instead. Heathrow is meanwhile


lobbying the government to be allowed to build a third


///NEWS


squeeze more freight into ‘full up’ Heathrow


runway, and says that, if given the green light, it could double freight capacity from 1.5 million to 3 million tonnes. The Davies Commission is expected to make its recommendation on airport capacity shortly aſter the forthcoming general election – although whether any future government is prepared to take the flack that new runways at Heathrow or other south-east airports


such as Gatwick will


inevitably entail, remains to be seen. Undeterred, Platts said: “I am


delighted to have been given this opportunity. This is a huge challenge with the restraints Heathrow is currently operating under and I am really looking forward to beginning the new role and developing a new and improved cargo service.”


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