CARGO 2000 COMMITS TO SERVICE PERFORMANCE MEASURES

CARGO 2000 COMMITS TO SERVICE PERFORMANCE MEASURES    Airline and freight forwarding members of Cargo 2000 said they have committed to putting in place systems for measuring service performance by March 2003.
   The service performance measurers were developed by shipper, forwarder and airline groups between 1995 and 1998. The air-freight cooperative identified key operational indicators which represent critical points within the transport chain that could then impact the service as a whole, as represented by the service performance indicators most important to shippers.
   'It has taken many years for the major airlines and freight forwarders to promise implementation of the service performance indicators, but we are absolutely delighted they finally have,' said Ramiro Dias, chairman of the European Shippers Council's    Air Transport Council. Dias spoke during a joint meeting between the ESC and Cargo 2000, an interest group of the International Air Transport Association.
   Dias and Ron Cesana, secretary of Cargo 2000, both emphasized that the implemented service performance measurements would not require additional costs from shippers.
   'Shippers will only pay for the quality of the service, not for the privilege of simply being told what level of performance they are or are not getting,' Dias said.
   Andrew Traill, acting secretary general of the ESC, said some issues still needed to be worked out, such as when an alert should be sent to the shipper if an indicator highlighted is a performance failure. However, 'when this goes live with Cargo 2000 members, their customers will benefit hugely from early warnings of critical performance failures and be able to react quickly to them,' Traill said. 'They will also receive performance reports which show where problems are being encountered that need attention, and can work with the service providers to sort them out.'
   Cargo 2000 has scheduled seminars in the coming weeks in Asia, Europe and North America to explain their plans.