Temperature controlled unit load device (ULD) specialist Envirotainer is aiming to double the amount of content it has for its academy as it seeks to provide training for ground handlers after helping airlines and freight forwarders.
Launched in May 2013, by April 2015 the Envirotainer academy, an online learning resource, had been used by 126 companies, with 19,300 courses taken by 4,000 of what the ULD firm calls, “learners”. Envirotainer wants to double the amount of content its academy has with the help of three more courses and three new videos to expand its relevance to potential new users. Envirotainer has a focus on Good Distribution Practice (GDP) in its educational materials. These materials include GDP posters for company’s workplaces. The academy has four broad industry related courses and more than 15 Envrotainer specific courses.
The academy contributes to the Qualified Envirotainer Provider Training and Quality Programme, also known as QEP. This programme began in 2007, for healthcare shippers. Last week, Envirotainer announced its 500th accredited QEP, “station.” Such a station is a location, a company, which has demonstrated to Envirotainer a proper quality system and showed that they are continuing to train staff. Envirotainer’s 500th station was a Kuehne + Nagel location. Kuehne + Nagel were the first QEP accredited location in 2007. Envirotainer compliance manager, Chris Fore, tells Air Cargo Week (ACW): “We are aiming to get the handlers onboard. [And] we are aiming at the top 150 airports. Not immediately, this is a process.” Fore spoke last week to ACW at the seventh Air Cargo Europe exhibition and conference in Munich (Germany). He adds that Envirotainer has 15 carriers and 14 freight forwarders participating in QEP.
Part of Envirotainers decision to help with partner company staff training came from handling issues that saw damage to the company’s ULDs and misuse of the containers leading to inconsistent temperature control which led to the company deciding in 2006 to increase its training activities.
The QEP programme also means Envirotainer can tell customers and prospective clients which companies and locations are QEP accredited by achieving a standard of quality service.