Airlines ranked by quality under new Cargo 2000 benchmarks

Airlines ranked by quality under new Cargo 2000 benchmarks    For the first time, major international airlines of the Cargo 2000 industry group have published joint comparative quality figures that show how they are measuring up against common performance standards.
   Eight-year-old Cargo 2000, an interest group of airlines and air forwarders within the International Air Transport Association, publicized in London Monday the first monthly measurements of “flown as planned” quality benchmarks of its member airlines. The data for May shipments show that participating airlines moved air freight shipments on the intended aircraft 90 percent of the times on average. The highest “flown as planned” compliance performances were those of Cathay Pacific and Nippon Cargo, at about 95-99 percent, and the lowest performance was that of CargoLux, at about 60 percent.
   Luxembourg-based CargoLux suffered information technology problems in May, according to Cargo 2000 representatives.
   Cargo 2000 is expected to start publishing detailed quality statistics on the percentage of correct forwarder waybills soon. Overall, the percentage of correct forwarder waybills measured in May was 85 percent, the group said, without disclosing more detailed figures by company.
   Thomas Mack, vice president of air freight at the German forwarder Schenker and a member of the board of Cargo 2000, said there is a commitment to publish results on quality “good or bad.”
   The group said the intention of this open approach is not to shame the poor performers, but to provide an incentive for participating companies to improve their quality.
   After a slow start, Cargo 2000 has rolled out the first phase of its quality program, which measures quality at the airport-to-airport master air waybill level. Shipments through the airports of Los Angeles and New York started being measured under the joint standards earlier this year.
   The group's second phase, which measures door-to-door quality at the house airway bill level, is to be implemented by all Cargo 2000 members from the third quarter of 2006. The final third phase, at the door-to-door piece level, has no set deadline, but its introduction could be coordinated with the e-freight initiative of International Air Transport Association, scheduled to be introduced in 2007 for early adopters.
   “The forwarders are the ones interested in measuring from door to door,” said Ron Cesana, project director of Cargo 2000. The Swiss forwarder Kuehne + Nagel said it has already adopted the group’s “phase two” standards internally.
   Guenter Rohrmann, chief operating officer of DHL and a former board member of Cargo 2000, said air forwarders and airlines can deliver a better service to shippers than integrators, but integrators “are one class better than we are on the data side.” He noted that integrators have added to their small package service the ability to handle conventional air cargo — the main market of air forwarders.
   Mick Fountain, chairman of Cargo 2000 and head of global freight Management at Exel, said the four main requirements of shippers remain the same: reliability, predictability, proactive shipment management and service.
   Due to the fragmentation of the air cargo industry and the large number of companies involved, the Cargo 2000 group believes that common standards and a common platform are essential to raise quality throughout the industry. The group admitted it suffered “growing pains” in its early stages, but insisted that the volume of shipments and transactions measured under the common standards is increasing fast. Today, airline members report 60,000 master air waybills a month under “phase one,” 20 percent more than a year ago.