SV June To Delhi

Elsewhere Keku Gazder – Regional Director Cargo, Indian Sub-Continent for Saudia Cargo said freighter services have been added from New Delhi to Riyadh and Jeddah this month.
Saudia Cargo now operates four weekly freighters into India in addition to serving eight passenger destinations with over sixty wide body passenger flights weekly to destinations worldwide.

     A common saying goes, “you can’t see the forest for the trees.”
     This also seems to be true for the ULD (or Unit Load Device).
     Most everyone in the air cargo business can identify the common types of ULDs and has seen them in all-day use for the purpose of carrying cargo, mail, and baggage.
     Few people, however, are familiar with the latest developments around ULDs, the requirements applicable to their use, and the regulatory background edicts for their usage.
     Thinking about ULDs and their common perception in our business, we are reminded of the great American comedian Rodney Dangerfield who used to tell his audience about his woes and travails:
     “You see, I get no respect,” Rodney would say, and that phrase usually brought down the house.
     Legally speaking, ULDs are part of the aircraft’s equipment and thus subject to stringent airworthiness requirements.
     In other words:  A surplus of missing rivets, damaged doors or locks, bent edges, broken base plates as well as improper repairs, the wrong tiedown equipment, and overload or unevenly distributed load will cause the ULD to be used out of its specifications and thus not be in compliance with applicable FAA, EASA, and IATA rules.
     Aircraft manufacturers including Airbus and Boeing as well as ULD manufacturers have developed stringent guidelines which, apart from airline-internal guidance such as the COM (Cargo Operations Manual) or the ASM (Airport Services Manual) can most easily be viewed in the IATA AHM (Airport Handling Manual) in its current 35th Edition and the IATA ULD Regulations in its current 3rd edition (the IATA ULD regulations have replaced the IATA UTM, the ULD Technical Manual, about three years ago, when the manual was revamped and substantially updated).

Word Up To Forwarders & Shippers

     While airlines and ground handlers have paid increasing attention to the ULD, especially in the past decade for various reasons—repair costs getting out of hand, empty ULD’s being too heavy (and thus a surplus of dead load-in times or rising fuel costs) and damage to aircraft caused by broken and/or improperly loaded ULDs— the ULD, it can be said, has failed elsewhere to become a focus of freight forwarders and shippers in the same manner as ULDs have with the airlines.
     While the ‘legacy’ way of doing air cargo business meant that the shipper handed over the cargo to the forwarder, who in turn tendered it to the airline’s local handling partner, who in turn built up the cargo via ULDs according to specifications and instruction supplied by the airline in question, times have changed:
     Forwarders are increasingly looking to carve off a bigger slice of the revenue cake for themselves, and even some shippers feel that their own staff can load especially sensitive loads (such as pharmaceuticals) in a more accurate or compliant manner than by airline or GHA staff.

Get Your BUP UP

     Almost 20 years ago, the industry developed the BUP program—BUP standing for Bulk Unitization Program, also called “CPLU” (Complete Unit) at times.
     Essentially, the airline agrees that either the shipper or a forwarder tenders a loaded ULD for carriage instead of loose cargo. Because the airline saves on GHA Buildup charges, a part of such saving is passed on to the forwarder or shipper, (e.g. the cargo rate is lowered).
     The deal is mostly sweetened by pivotal weight agreements, such as a minimum payment for a given ULD (say, a LD3 AKE Container) equaling a certain weight charge such as 750kg.
     Anything loaded in excess of the pivotal weight by the forwarder or shipper is subject to a further reduced rate, which may generate considerable revenues to the shipper where the cargo is question is sufficiently “dense.”
     Other types of BUP’s involve special cargoes such as “GOH,” Garment on Hangers, which allows for the transport of fashion and apparel from production until delivery without packaging and the need for ironing before placing the garment in the store. That ship to sale feature alone accounts for sufficient savings.
     So even though BUP sounds like a win-win situation – some airlines have experienced otherwise.
     Since with most shippers and forwarders smaller ULDs (such as LD3 AKEs and LD8 ALFs) are in demand and BUP usually must be transported to the final consignee’s location, airlines have had to face an imparity of ULD use.
     In particular from Asia to the U.S. and Europe inbound where AKE-type containers are used, an imbalance on return legs into Asia is noticeable as mostly 10-foot pallets of the PMC or PAG types are required, causing shortages of ULDs at Asian locations.
     So while storage charges are added in the U.S. and Europe and trucking charges are incurred since only four to five of the AKE-type LD3 containers fit on one 18-meter standard trailer, the return of ULDs from smaller airports or the forwarding of ULDs to other offline airports within the airline’s network continues to be a costly endeavor.

Security, Handling & Other Concerns

     Since anyone involved in handling identifiable air cargo is subject to local and international security and safety requirements, locations of ULD buildup must be ‘secure’ in the context of air security requirements.
     Moreover staff involved in buildup activities are subjected to a background check as well as to repeated training in accordance with subsection 1.5 of the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations (even where no Dangerous Goods are loaded).
     Staff Category 5 general awareness training is the minimum requirement and subsection 1.6 of the IATA ULD Regulations instruct staff about restrictions and conditions pertinent to the use of ULDs.
     In addition, handling ULDs by means of forklift is strictly prohibited unless the ULDs are equipped for such purpose, which very few are.
     Also, loading of any dangerous goods in BUP ULDs is generally prohibited with the exception of some low-risk DG, subject to individual carrier approval.
     In reality, however, the security of such buildup locations is often questionable at best and training provided to buildup staff in the context of the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations and the IATA ULD Regulations is either non-existent or perfunctory, meaning one foreman on location holds a more or less recognizable training certificate meant to cover the entire operation.

Lufthansa Leadership

     While some airlines such as Lufthansa Cargo have been proactive in advancing ULD technologies and practices for some time (also as a means to generate revenue from their own ULD buildup type training), others have so far approved requests from 3rd parties for BUP carriage without asking too many inconvenient questions.
     With increasing pressure from regulators and interest bodies such as IATA, and with airworthiness rules vigorously enforced by rampside inspections, the situation is changing—and it’s changing fast.
     Now ULDs damaged by improper handling, loading, and use are more likely to be taken out of service and subjected to costly repair by approved repair stations.
     In the meantime, airlines exceedingly look into the credentials of the buildup contractor before approving BUP-type traffic.

The Unknown Entity

     When it comes to ULDs there a few outstanding people—like Bob Rogers from Nordisk (right) (known for both his drastic and knowledgeable presentations delivered at industry meetings such as the IATA WCS and the TIACA ACF)—who have dedicated their professional lives to raising awareness about the ‘unknown entity ULD’ and have played a pivotal role in spreading the word. Urs Wiesendanger (left) from Air Canada who also serves as president of the organization ULD Care is another stand-up stalwart for better understanding of best practices in ULDs.
     One inescapable fact is that while in the past ULD Training requirements were more often than not perfunctorily ‘satisfied’ by subjecting BUP Buildup staff to computer-based training in the English language (no matter if the attending staff was actually capable of speaking at least basic English), that practice is now raising red flags in airline’s cargo departments—and rightfully so.
     Looking ahead, freight forwarders will have to come to a conclusion shippers seem to have made quite a while ago:
     Loading ULDs requires qualified and trained staff, as only dedicated staff aware of the industry requirements will load a ULD not only in compliance with applicable safety and security requirements, but also to insure that the load will arrive in the impeccable state in which it left the production facilities.
     The latter, at least for shippers of pharmaceuticals, is the ultimate goal and the only one that counts.
Jens