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Vol. 18 No. 79	Wednesday December 18, 2019

Margraten Cemetery Jan Krems and United and CEVA team
Left-to-right in the back row of the photo are Tim Brumley of CEVA Logistics and United team members Chris Busch, Sharon Hogg, Jan Krems, Richard Jones, Dave Merriman, Debra Merriman and Dave Pond. In the center foreground is Mr. Jan Krems, father of United Cargo’s President.

For the second straight year, United Cargo teamed with nonprofit Wreaths Across America and CEVA Logistics to ship live, Maine-made balsam fir holiday wreaths to Europe. The wreaths traveled from United hubs in IAD, IAH and EWR to AMS for the December 1 event at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten.

   Members of the United and CEVA teams, including United Cargo President Jan Krems, helped place the wreaths on the headstones of all 8,291 U.S. service members killed in action during World War II who are laid to rest in Margraten.
   Jan Krems picks up the story:
   “As someone born and raised in the Netherlands, I was proud to represent both the United family and the Dutch people at the ceremony.
   “My Dutch countrymen and women who adopt the grave sites of fallen U.S. soldiers, and those involved in ‘The Faces of Margraten’ program to collect photos that put a face to the names of our liberators, prove that the sacrifices made by those who came to rescue our country from oppression 75 years ago will never be forgotten.
   “But what made this year’s ceremony even more meaningful for me was the presence of my father. He’s in his late 80s, so he remembers what it was like when our country was invaded and then occupied in the first half of the 1940s.
   “Having lived through the tyranny and then experienced the liberation, he has even more profound admiration and gratitude for those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.
   “The men and women resting at Margraten made a decision 75 years ago: they decided that the cause of freedom was more important than their own lives, and they acted on that decision.
   “Speaking for my father and everyone at United Cargo, I can say the bravery of these fallen soldiers will live forever in our hearts and memories,” Jan Krems said.
Geoffrey

E Commerce & Mail Panel, IATA Cargo Events

Lithium batteries has been a hot topic, but it has been even more so with the growth of e-Commerce.
     One of the panels held during IATA’s Cargo Events in Amsterdam the end of October was especially well attended.
     The “e-Commerce and Mail, a Risk or Opportunity?” panel discussed how e-commerce is providing significant growth by postal operators.
     Postal operators are utilizing international air mail for the shipment of products by all sizes of shippers.
     The problem that exist is that many shippers are not knowledgeable on what restrictions there are on dangerous goods.

Dawn Of The Postal Union

     The e-Commerce and Mail panel was made up with Dawn Wilkes, Program Manager, Security for the Universal Postal Union, James Wyatt, General Manager of aeroconcept and Alex McCulloch, International Dangerous Goods Manager for UPS.
     They discussed the due diligence that all know that is important to ensure the safety of the supply chain.
     As airmail has seen such a dramatic growth due to e-commerce, there was much discussion on lithium batteries in these shipments.
     How do you educate the shipper? What can governments do?
     What is the responsibility of the postal operators? Is mail, really mail as we have known it in the past?
     Lots of questions.

Air Mail Super Highway

In the United States there has been a large growth of mail with the reduction of the de minimis value for customs clearance of $800.
This has made airmail a new way to transport e-commerce shipments.

The China Question

     It was brought up that 80% of the mail coming into the U.S. alone is coming from China Post.
     The concerns are there are shippers that do not know what they are shipping is not dangerous and others are just not declaring the goods.
     The last are the bad guys.
     The problem is not just a mail issue but a cargo issue.

Not Your Grandfather’s Air Mail Anymore

Others are saying that mail is not mail as we have known it in the past, envelopes and cards, but is a true express type product that does not necessarily follow the same rules as conventional and express air cargo.

Lithium Issues No Short Circuit

     The conversation on lithium battery was not just on this panel but rolled over in the security and customs groups as well. U.S. Customs and Border Protection Director for C-TPAT (Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism) and TSA Cargo Director John Beckius (right) also expressed their concerns over the security and safety issues.
Duane Pfund      Also, in attendance from the U.S. government was Duane A. Pfund, (left) International Program Coordinator, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration for the U.S. Department of Transportation.
     Overall the panel focused on a serious issue that the entire air cargo industry must work on every day to ensure the safety of the aviation industry.
     What seemed to be most important is that the industry has a focus and the event brought together postal, government, industry and shippers to work together on an important issue as this.
     Good work, lively discussion from IATA Cargo.

Cargo Careen's Toward Lithium

     IATA, FIATA, TIACA, GSF lifted voices together, calling a crack-down on manufacturers of counterfeit batteries and of mis-labeled and non-compliant shipments introduced into the supply chain, by issuing and enforcing criminal sanctions on those responsible.
     Noting that demand for lithium batteries is growing by 17% annually the group warned:
     “Dangerous goods, including lithium batteries, are safe to transport if managed according to international regulations and standards.

The Misdeclared Menace

     “But we are seeing an increase in the number of incidents in which rogue shippers are not complying,” said Nick Careen, (left) IATA’s Senior Vice President, Airport, Passenger, Cargo and Security as he revealed an industry information-sharing platform to target misdeclared consignments of lithium batteries.
     “We are also launching a series of dangerous goods awareness seminars being held across the world targeting countries and regions where compliance has been challenging.”
     In addition, an education and awareness program for customs authorities has been developed in collaboration with the World Customs Organization (WCO).

Total Effort

     The industry has put its support behind an initiative presented by the United Kingdom, New Zealand, France and the Netherlands at the recent Assembly of the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) which calls for adoption of a cross-domain approach to include aviation security, manufacturing standards, customs and consumer protection agencies.
     Currently air cargo is scanned for items that pose a risk to security such as explosives, but not safety such as lithium batteries.
     “Safety is aviation’s top priority.
     Abuses of dangerous goods shipping regulations, which place aircraft and passenger safety at risk, must be criminalized,” said Glyn Hughes, IATA’s Global Head of Cargo.
     “The increasing use of lithium batteries coupled with the growth of e-commerce supply and demand is exposing the air cargo supply chain to greater risk of un-declared or mis-declared goods. We support regulators imposing strict adherence to established compliance standards,” said Mr. Keshav Tanna, (right) Chairman of FIATA’s Airfreight Institute.
Geoffrey

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      President Truman said that the only news is history you don’t know.
      Maybe the best argument for continually paying attention to history, is so that we might learn from what we missed.
      No doubt some direction as to how to set history straight is included in the opening words Thomas Jefferson chose while writing the American Declaration of Independence:
      “When in the Course of human events,” Jefferson wrote.
      Everything we do or have done connects us as humans, and is part of the history that got us where we are today.

The Wright Track

      Take the Wright Brothers as example.
      This week as we recall man’s first powered flight in an airplane by the Wright Brothers, we think, that those two brothers who changed the world were certainly in real life much more than people in some flinty black and white film and pictures.
      We mark that event 116 years ago on December 17, when the Ohio Brothers were at the beach in North Carolina with plenty of high winds and soft sands as they took off and landed in a tiny bi-plane, an event that changed the world forever.

Taking For Granted

Today in a world as you routinely direct or load cargo onto an airplane that takes off and soars up to seven miles above the earth landing somewhere around the world within a few hours, it is good to discover news about what led up to these two guys making that first flight.

Bishop Wright Award & Path Forward

David McCullough       I was looking at a plaque hanging in my office that was presented to me at a lavish luncheon held at JFK International Airport in 2002 when I was given The Protestant Chapel at JFKIA, New York City Council of Churches Bishop Wright Award as “Man of the Year” for advocating for aviation and air cargo with our publication, Air Cargo News.
      Thinking about the Protestant cleric, who was Orville & Wilbur’s father, and for whom the award was named, being bestowed the award was a great honor for me.
      Recently Bishop Wright came into full memory and focus again when I discovered a speech that popular historian David McCullough (left) delivered at the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston.
      Mr. McCullough said that he discovered some writings about Wilbur in Bishop Wright’s diary while researching for his epoch 2015 book titled “The Wright Brothers” that was published by Simon & Schuster.

Something New A Century Old

      What was revealed just a few years ago is the “news” here.
      “Wilbur was a genius,” McCullough contends.
      “Orville was also quite capable but Wilbur was the one.
      “Both had only high school educations.
      “However today their home, now a museum, remains filled with many books, including great classics of modern literature and science indicating a family of avid readers.
      “We found a diary kept by Bishop Wright.
      “It was the first time that we uncovered original material that had not already appeared in one form or another elsewhere,” the two-time Pulitzer Prize (Truman/John Adams) winner revealed.

Wilbur Gets His Teeth Knocked Out

Wilbur Wright       What the author discovered in the Bishop Wright diary is news from another time that sheds light on the true human nature of history.
      “When he was about 18 years old, Wilbur (right) was hit in the teeth with a hockey stick during a pick up game with some neighborhood friends, that knocked out all of his upper teeth,” McCullough said.
      “Aside from primitive dentistry and excruciating pain, Wilbur, a handsome young athletic young man was so disfigured, his face was hard to look at.
      “Wilbur retreated into a self-imposed isolation at home in Dayton, Ohio.
      “He gave up plans to attend Yale University, preferring to stay at home to look after his Mom who was dying of tuberculosis, and it was then he began to read in this self-imposed isolation that lasted three years.
      “The time caused a terrific swerve in his life’s direction
      “Wilbur set off on a pursuit of knowledge, writing to the Smithsonian asking for information and the rest is history.
      “This was the time that set Wilbur Wright on the path that led him to the invention of the airplane,” Mr. McCullough said.
      “The question is who hit Wilbur in the teeth and was it intentional?”, David McCullough wondered.
      “In Bishop Wright’s diary there is an entry post Wilbur’s death, after he died tragically in 1912 at age 40 of typhoid fever.
      “He writes to explain who the boy was that hit Wilbur and later what happened to him.
      “His name was Oliver Haugh,” Mr. McCullough explains, “a boy who lived right around the corner from the Wrights in the same neighborhood.”

Ultimate Expression of Evil

      “Haugh later became the most notorious murderer in the State of Ohio.
      “He killed his father, his mother, his brother and an estimated 12 others or more.
      “Isn’t is fascinating,” David McCullough marvels, “that one of the geniuses in our story of the history of flight grew up in the same neighborhood with the ultimate expression of evil?
      “Haugh was executed in 1906 but we still don’t know if he hit Wilbur on purpose but maybe someday we might find out,” McCullough said.
      “The point here is that throughout history there is no mention anywhere of this crucial turning point.
      “What a thrill it is to have discovered this diary entry,” David McCullough concluded.

A Postscript

History is just past the moment and always alive, with more to be learned because in some way or another we learn the way forward, seems to be the message here.

Orville Carried Legacy Forward

      As time moved on, brother Orville Wright who was a personal friend of Paul Garber at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., loaned that first Kitty Hawk airplane to the museum in thanks for the information and support that helped get the first flight off the ground.
      How The Smithsonian, as Paul Garber told me in 1987, also received Charles Lindbergh’s “Spirit of St. Louis” placing both aircraft above glass cases filled with airplane models and then attracting three million visitors a year, led to creation of The National Air & Space Museum, is another story.
      Sharing a great discovery is always welcome news.
      “The Wright Brothers” is available on Amazon.
Geoffrey

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