Aleks
The Great
"A
lot of my time is mining the intelligence and energy that already exists
in air cargo.”
Aleksander Popovich, the first Global Head
of Cargo for The International Air Transport Association (IATA) recalls
the initial thing he did after joining the governing body that creates
regulation for international air transport.
“After I was given an office here,
I sat down and looked at the desk and telephone, and decided to go take
a coffee.”
That was April 2005 in Geneva after Mr.
Popovich departed British Airways moving to IATA where he accepted the
challenge of addressing a broad agenda including immediately formulating
a plan of action.
From the sound and look of things, even
before that coffee kicked in, Aleks was on his way.
His first move was to gather support for
air cargo to adopt the IATA passenger-driven paperless initiative and
general overall mission statement to simplify process.
The mandate to drive paper dependency out
of the air cargo supply chain along with other well-publicized targets
such as 100% passenger e-ticket by the end of 2007 was given by IATA’s
Board of Governors, which consists of top airline CEOs.
Although cargo has until the end of 2010
to achieve its objective, the board is expecting to see early advocates
make significant progress in freeing their processes from paper in air
cargo by the end of 2007 as well.
Now, just about a year after he came upon
the scene, and a little more than a year and a half until he better deliver,
air cargo is thinking e-freight.
How
well Mr. Popovich is faring and how many times a day this young executive
must think about e-freight, can be measured by some comments made early
in a speech delivered by Giovanni Bisignani IATA Secretary General at
the AGM in Paris just about a week ago on June 5.
“We
are sinking in a sea of paperwork.
“E-freight is a big challenge.
“Unlike E-ticketing, it is not entirely
within our control.
“Thirty-five percent of the value
of goods traded internationally fly on our aircraft.
“Government inaction—not IT—is
holding back enormous progress in trade efficiency.
“Not a single government has all the
legislation in place to support e-freight.
“In today’s internet world,
this is an embarrassment.
“Governments must not block a responsible
industry-driving efficiency.”
That IATA is placing air cargo into the
first five minutes of the top presentation at its AGM indicates both that
somebody is finally paying attention and talk may turn onto real action.
Aleks Popovich:
“The air cargo industry could fill
39 Boeing 747 freighters each year with paper wasted on documentation.
“In 33 years the average time for
an air cargo shipment has only been reduced from 6.5 days to 6 days.
“Paperless cargo processing could
save the industry $1.2 billion each year and reduce shipping time by at
least 25%
“I spend a lot of time on the road
meeting with airlines and forwarders, attending events and giving speeches.
“My job is to recognize roadblocks
to success, and steer around them.
“But I am always struck by the comment:
“You are the first person we have
ever seen from IATA.
“That brings everything in perspective.
“We have a big job to do.
“Customer time-definite delivery and
information transparency can be improved if air cargo supply chain participants
including shippers, forwarders, customs, and carriers, join together to
simplify industry processes and eliminate the long standing dependency
on paper across the cargo supply chain.
"Imagine converting and processing
electronic documents for $30 and save 80% in costs?
“At 35 million consignments, that's
more than a billion-dollar savings annually in processing.
“A piece of freight waiting for a
piece of paper to be processed is what we are after.
"The IATA Cargo Committee (comprised
of executives from more than a dozen cargo carriers) is focused on implementing
pilot studies with customs, carriers and forwarders.
“The air cargo industry needs to have
open and frank discussions on all the various topics confronting us.
“But we also should conclude our interaction
with action.
“The IATA board has set December 2007
as the deadline for "early adopters" to implement the IATA E-freight
system.
"The power of that date gives us real
edge, focus urgency.”
If IATA e-freight has been the most vocal
and visible public activity of its new cargo chief, other moves worth
noting include a top to bottom revamp of the entire IATA air cargo team
worldwide.
IATA Cargo has about 80 managers in the
field.
Since he came on board Mr. Popovich said
staffing changes have included about two thirds of that number.
Most are involved in the CASS Link settlement
system.
Now these managers in addition to their
former duties will be charged with working closely with their regional
directors and service partners to expand participation in their home countries
while bringing to the fore other activities including aforementioned e-freight,
safety and security, advances from Cargo 2000, and even moves toward adopting
RFID technology.
In U.S. Cargo Network Services (CNS) will
get a new President to be named after Tony Calabrese retires later this
month, but the title may read more like Regional Director USA.
We assume CNS also gets a new chairman now
that DHL’s Guenther Rohrmann announced at last month’s annual
conference that he is stepping down.
CNS will hold its Annual Partnership Conference
in San Diego next year as planned.
“We need to build on the networking
and golf and meetings amongst business executives at CNS.”
No doubt things both at CNS and elsewhere
in the wide world of IATA Cargo are changing.
But first things, first.
After initially reaching out amongst people
in the air cargo industry while forming the IATA Air Cargo Committee,
now Mr. Popovich is building a global cargo
team including various individuals who will specialize in areas most critical.
An example is addition of John Edwards from
BA, who joins IATA as global Head of Cargo Security July 1st.
New regional directors and specialists are
being added with special talents to accelerate various specific goals
and projects on the agenda as one point is made over and again by Aleks
Popovich:
Air cargo is not riding in coach at IATA
anymore.
Aleksander Popovich, graduated from Oxford
University with a First Class Honors Degree in Mathematics.
He joined British Airways in late 1982 in
Information Technology and Operational Research (OR) developing systems.
Aleks served as Head of IT for the British
Airways World Cargo, and also as Head of Network Management where he was
responsible for growing, protecting and exploiting the cargo route network.
Before joining IATA, Aleks spent nearly
three years developing British Airways’ capability in delivering
corporate business change and corporate business intelligence.
He is married, with 3 children (including
a one-year old), and lives in Geneva.
Aleks Popovich has plenty on his plate as
he approaches the end of his beginnings at IATA.
But in conversation his enthusiasm coupled
with dazzling intelligence show little sign of concern that in time his
ability to move air cargo to e-freight will by and large determine his
success or failure.
IATA Cargo will also continue its drive
to both broaden membership participation in every country as key to realizing
lower costs all around, while at the same time looking to expand CASS
and other services to even more countries including notably, India.
“I believe air cargo needs an openness
as it identifies its needs, to take on things that work elsewhere,”
Aleks Popovich said.
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