COVID-19 has disrupted supply chains around the world. Grocery retailers, for example, have seen demand increases of up to 25%, spikes normally seen exclusively during the Christmas period. Supply chains are struggling to meet this demand simply because most countries are in quarantine and they’ve had no lead time to plan for this type of demand. Up to 75% of companies are experiencing significant disruptions in their supply chain due to COVID-19 related travel restrictions. This all means that processing and shipping cargo is a far more complex task than it was pre-pandemic, and intelligent automation now plays a critical role in helping to address this challenge.

Typically, cargo loss is one of the biggest problems in logistics. As many as 30% of all perishable products never make it from the farm to the table, specifically due to problems in transit, whilst total cargo loss and theft is estimated to cost the industry $50bn annually, according to the National Cargo Security Council. There is also a global problem with freight reliability and, according to the European Commission, extended transit time would result in an increase in inventory costs and delays in delivery, together amounting to more than $9.34m annually in shipping costs for logistics companies.

Read the rest of this study in the next issue of Air Cargo Week, June 22 2020