In the past decade of increasing global turmoil, regulators and enforcement agencies have a higher attention to many commodities. With modern digital capabilities and smart information systems, enforcement agencies can now target shipment data and direct inspections to various flows of goods that move around the world. Many topics like military shipments, dual-use shipments, pharmaceuticals and entity screening have led to court cases and extremely high penalties.
This world of global trade and the need for logistics solutions with a short timeline require absolute commitment from all stakeholders in the air cargo supply chain to prepare shipments as early as practicable. Here are our commitments:
Number 1 know what you transport At the beginning the shipper or the producer will put a parcel together it is very important to understand what is inside that parcel. In addition it is also important to understand who the shipper is and who the ultimate consignee will be. Once these individual shipments have been consolidated into a container or pallet it becomes very difficult to backtrack the information of small parcels and the unique entities Shipper and Consignee.
Another impediment is that visual checks are hampered by colored plastic. At the data level, we see that the shipper and consignee data is hidden in a consolidation airway bill. We need this data on house waybill information to improve the effectiveness of risk profiling. Recent court cases in Dutch court have lead to an increased duty to investigate.
The extensive scope of applicable regulations has increased the liability for transport service providers failing to obtain the required license.
Number 2 catch discrepancies as early as practicable To reduce the risk of shipments being stopped somewhere along the supply chain it is imperative to perform a risk assessment as early as practicable. This requires an active role from manufacturer´s, shippers and freight forward prior to booking.
Optimal logistics solutions must comply with rules, regulations and policies and when in doubt do not transport these goods before potential issues have been resolved. Within our airline, we are trying to automate this risk assessment based on data as much as possible during the booking and confirmation process. In addition, the Cargo acceptance process at the origin warehouse is the final safety barrier for checking the compliance of shipments. The prior to loading risk assessment process must be completed to safeguard a smooth journey of the goods.
We have built a monitor that will flag potential risks and we can send a message to your system in the case a flag has been raised. When one of our Cargo targeters sets a red flag, a message will be sent to the origin station to hold the shipment and not move it before the issues have been resolved.
Number 3 No means No, the human factor. From the top down, we are committed to be compliant with all rules and regulations. We spend a lot of time on awareness and training. In addition, we want to learn from mistakes and publish an internal compliance Keynote paper describing how to solve mistakes and prevents them from reoccurring in the future.
Our people are keen to find optimal logistic solutions for you, always safe, secure and compliant. We have built a targeting capacity based on the product of technology, people and concept of operations. If possible we will provide proactive customer feedback. If required we will engage in dialogue with customer compliance departments.
We are also connected to enforcement agencies that have innovation high on the agenda and are willing to work together on building risk detection capabilities.
Number 4 prepare for continuous change. Global trade is influenced by Geo political developments. This means that every day rules and regulations are adjusted and entities are added to various sanction lists. We are moving from a paper world into a digital world however, a full paperless flight is still the future.
While building these future solutions where the electronic information will always match the physical goods and sharing data in a different way than today, we still have the burden of checking papers and licenses for special shipments. For the next decade, change will continue and we want to be prepared in a timely fashion.
For this we need to work together with our partners and respect the fact that our HUBs are part of the French and Dutch regulatory context. In addition, the origin and destination territories are changing their requirements as well and we need to take these changes into account as well.
Number 5 integrate and innovate. The vast amount of rules and restrictions in a changing global context requires an integrated approach if we want to comply with these rules. The circle of integrated compliance and safety consists of four stages.
- The first one concerns safety to our aircraft, crew, passengers and Cargo. This is about security, dangerous goods and weight and balance.
- The second stage concerns are license to operate. Here we look at export, transit and import controls, strategic/military/dual-use goods, live animals and customs data.
- The third stage is about being responsible. Here we look at illicit wildlife trade, anti-counterfeit and contraband.
- The fourth part of the circle closing the loop is about innovation where we look at the combination of emerging technology applied in a concept of operations that will sustain and improve the previous three stages.
An example is applying block chain technology to enable authentication throughout the supply chain on the provenance and transportation or pharmaceutical goods. This can possibly enable enforcement agencies to validate the goods based on data prior to arrival in their territory.
Future proof! Referencing the United Nations sustainable development goals, we aim to build for the future. Supply chains have proved that they are a vital part of modern industry, innovation and infrastructure in order to provide good health and well-being around the world. By being compliant, we contribute to the objective of peace justice and strong institutions.
Our core values are to be reliable and responsible!
The 5 Compliance Commitments