INSURANCE\\\ News Roundup


Issue 5 2016 - Freight Business Journal IT


Aramex investment addresses a global problem Middle East owned logistics provider Aramex has invested US$2.94 million as part of a $8.5m Series funding of the what3words addressing platform - an address system based on a global grid of 57 trillion 3mx3m squares, where each square has a unique pre-assigned three-word address. Aramex will use what3words in its own e-commerce fulfilment operations across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. According to the UN, 135 countries don’t have an adequate address system which puts huge pressure on the logistics industry. Already available in 10 languages and used in more than 170 countries, what3words will use the new investment to launch its voice recognition product in the smartphone, wearables, and automotive sectors and develop its address system in several Asian languages. The investment will also support the growth of its team and further global expansion.


Champ limbers up for ACI Champ Cargosystems and Senegal Customs have started work to implement Advance Electronic Information (ACI) for air cargo shipments in the country. Advance Electronic Information will give better visibility, reduce clearance time for shipments


The great weight debate is still in the balance


Now that 1 July has come and gone, Peregrine Storrs- Fox of TT Club can see some clarity in what has become an unnecessarily confusing debate over the revised SOLAS regulation. But with the Verified Gross Mass (VGM) now required for every packed export container worldwide, many national authorities have not engaged with the container industry locally to avoid disruption to trade globally.


The revision is simple enough – what is delivered to the ship must actually be weighed for ship safety purposes. There was a long and thorough consultative process spanning four years. Yet the media has been filled with reports of confusion, ignorance and outright defiance during the weeks running up to the effective date on Friday 1 July. Associations and individual


and increase security and the aim is to start the mandatory pilot phase on 1 June and go live by 1 September. As part of the agreement, Champ has performed a comprehensive analysis into Senegal’s Customs requirements and has helped define the specifications. Countries in Africa and around the world are looking to adopt advance electronic filing to increase efficiency, accuracy, speed and reduce costs and errors.


Tuning up the supply chain Damco has launched a Supply Chain Orchestrator control tower solution to improve overall


supply chain visibility,


performance and optimisation. It provides a single coordination point, integrating, validating and distributing data across supply chain partners and fully integrates fourth party logistics provision (4PL) with predictive and analytical techniques allowing detection and response to events before they affect performance. The programme is based on a three-step approach so companies can evolve from gaining end-to-end visibility, through enhancing day-to-day supplier performance, to finally optimising the complete supply chain across all providers. “We call it Supply Chain Orchestrator because organisations can orchestrate all the separate supply chain actions in real time from one platform, much like a conductor controls the flow and tempo of an orchestra to create perfect harmony,” explains Neil Wheeldon, responsible for global product development at the forwarder. “Companies can realise significant savings in supply chain and inventory costs, improve service levels and engage suppliers in a more collaborative way. In a recent implementation Damco was able to reduce supply chain costs for a large multinational by approximately 15% whilst improving overall supply chain reliability.” Supplier control includes rule-based partner selection, shipment and order planning, performance monitoring and alerting, as well as root-cause analysis with corrective actions.


companies, shippers, forwarders, terminal operators and ocean carriers have been working hard for many months, consulting with their members, partners and counterparties in the supply chain, to organise the most efficient means of complying with this important safety regulation and avoiding unnecessary delays. While SOLAS


is globally binding,


without the overriding necessity for national implementing measures, many continue


to seek guidance


from competent authorities – even in a number of


leading


trading nations – as to how the regulation is to be enforced. Currently, only around 20% of the signatory states to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea have issued additional national implementation guidance. Because of this uncertainty,


the search for clarity must be continued in what is now an intense adjustment phase. The industry still needs proactive guidance from regulatory authorities about the approach and expectations in each country, as well as how the regulation will be enforced. The UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) has been one of the few authorities keen to explain its policy on enforcement, holding frequent


seminars and Q&A sessions. This has led to publication of very helpful information (http:// tinyurl.com/gtgp414). Importantly, as it is the


origin of a high percentage of packed containers, China has issued guidelines, advising that Maritime Agencies at the nation’s ports should perform random checks. While perhaps not comprehensive, the guidance is extensive in its advice to shippers on internal controls and management systems to ensure an accurate VGM. At TT Club we are seeking


still further clarity and will maintain our efforts to achieve this across more key jurisdictions. Meanwhile, the Club has published Stakeholder Digests (http://tinyurl.com/ j3pq4u8) providing guidance on the regulation and how it affects various parties in the container supply chain. The guidance is simple to follow and seeks to build on the everyday cooperation between all stakeholders in the diverse and efficient containerised industry. This advice sits alongside the collaborative effort by TT Club,


the carrier’s representative body, World Shipping Council, the cargo handlers association, ICHCA and Global Shippers Forum to extend their FAQ information published in December 2015 with Supplementary Industry FAQs. This is also available on the TT Club ‘mini-site’ dedicated to VGM and is evidence of the positive response from many quarters of the industry who have engaged to resolve the complexity and potential difficulties. Stakeholders are urged to continue to approach any of the collaborating organisations with any additional questions that arise. Contact details of subject- matter experts from each of the organisations can be found at the end of the FAQs document. According to the regulation,


VGM shall be obtained either by weighing the packed container [‘Method 1’] or weighing all parts of the load [‘Method 2’]. Many container terminals have now announced arrangements to assist


shippers in obtaining


Method 1 weighing and shipping lines are also posting the tare mass of their containers online to assist with the calculation


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for Method 2, a compromise process that was included in the SOLAS amendment as a result of shipper representation. Furthermore, BIC (Bureau International des Containers et du Transport Intermodal) has announced the launch of its Technical Characteristics Database, to provide easy access to container information. While harmony will never


reign supreme in any industry, the container business has come together well in this case. Consistency, however, across the international governmental spectrum has been lacking, causing much frustration. We would highlight the less-than- helpful and confusing messages from some government bodies. Those involved in packing and moving the world’s containerised trade deserve coordinated and consistent advice. This internationally mandated regulation, carefully negotiated and crafted


at


inter-governmental level to engender safety, is necessarily implemented in each state and needs to be done consistently to facilitate trade. However, in the main it has


been left to industry partners to step into the breach and provide practical support for implementation of this mandatory international regulation. We would emphasise that collaboration across the container industry remains key. Container safety is a shared


responsibility, and all parties have an interest in improving the safety of ships, their crews and others throughout the containerised supply chain, while improving processes and reducing the risk of damages to cargo at the same time. The safety issues that VGM goes part way to addressing should remain our chief concern.


Intelligent freight management Forward Computers has catered to our every need and


bent over backwards to ensure that we make full use of


ForwardOffice, configuring it to suit our business and staff. They have even adapted their system just for us, so they are certainly very flexible - and worth every penny.


Gaz Hodson, Operations Manager, Advance Forwarding limited


forwardcomputers.co.uk


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