TIACA has now concluded the one-month pilot stage of its new online Cargo Service Quality (CSQ) tool. Cargo operators at eighteen airports, including Asia Airfreight Terminal in Hong Kong, Celebi Cargo Terminal and Delhi Cargo Service Centre in Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, Celebi Cargo Terminal in Istanbul, Menzies Bobba and Air India SATS Cargo Terminal of Bengaluru Airport and SATS Airport Services in Singapore, took part in the pilot, says Delhi International Airport chief commercial officer Sanjiv Edward who headed the project.
He says: “In about four weeks, we will have the international launch of CSQ.”
The CSQ tool will benefit the worldwide air cargo community by improving visibility and facilitating global standards. The project incorporates a four-step process: benchmarking, assessment, improvement and excellence as a way of raising cargo service standards.
Edward is pleased that all terminals that took part in the pilot will remain in the scheme once it goes live. TIACA had experienced no problems in attracting the cargo operators to take part in the pilot.
The pilot cargo terminals were rated by forwarders on several factors including – process, technology, facilities, regulators and general airport Infrastructure. Edward, who admits to a “passion for cargo”, expects that rollout of CSQ across the industry and saturation will take up to two years,
However, this is the first phase in what TIACA aims to be CSQ coverage of the whole supply chain.
He says: “TIACA has the big ambition that CSQ will eventually cover the whole supply chain. The first stage is the terminals and cargo handling. Then we will look at airlines, forwarders and others in the supply chain.”
One insight gained by TIACA during the pilot, according to Edward, was that “we found that those operators who engaged with their customers the most received the better quality rating scores.”