AIR AND SMALL PACKAGEThird Assignment: 5004 Transportation

AIR FREIGHT: ADVANTAGES OF THE MODE

High Speed

Quick Service

No Infrastructure Investment

Easy Access

No Physical Barrier

Natural Route

National Defence

AIR FREIGHT: DISADVANTAGES OF THE MODE

Risky

Very costly

Small carrying capacity

Unreliable

Huge investment

AIR CRAFT CONFIGURATION: TYPES OF EQUIPMENT

Wide-body jets, narrow-body jets, feeder aircraft are different types of cargo aircrafts.

ULD (Unit Load Device) Is a pallet or container used to load luggage, freight, specially designed to fit the belly hold of a jet plane.

The loading of ULDs involves rolling in the container. Number of loaded containers depends on aircraft size.

ULDs come in two forms: pallets & containers. Pallets are rugged sheets of aluminium with rims designed to lock onto cargo net lugs. Containers also known as cans and pods, are closed containers made of aluminium or combination of aluminium (frame)and Lexan (walls), which, depending on the nature of the goods to be transported, may have built-in refrigeration units.

AIR FREIGHT: DIFFERENT TYPES OF SERVICES

Air freight services vary in relation to weight, size, and type of package or cargo.

Household goods and organization category have the simplest and most common type of air cargo service.

There is a support class category that consists of transportation of things that require overnight delivery by air freight.

Air cargo services also deals with parcel or ground shipment.

Air freight services also provides integrated cargo services in combination with other modes of transport.

AIR FREIGHT: MAIN REGULATIONS

Chicago convention, Warsaw convention, Montreal convention provides main regulations on air freight.

IATA (International Air Transport Association) provides Significant Changes and Amendments to the Dangerous Goods Regulations.

In addition, specific country related regulations also play important role in air transport.

AIR FREIGHT: RATES, PRICING, DENSITY

Air freight rates generally range from $1.50–$4.50 per kilogram.

In air transport, prices are calculated basing on the weight/volume ratio.

1kg = 6000 cubic cm (1:6000)

= 366 cubic inches. (1 lb. = 166 cubic inches)

Including ground handling charges, and fuel surcharge, rates and pricing varies with different service providers like Federal express, UPS, Cathay pacific etc.

AIR FREIGHT: DOCUMENTATION AND PACKAGING REQUIREMENTS

House air-way bill is a necessary documentation in air freight and these are some of the good packaging requirements.

o Use a rigid box with flaps intact

o Remove any labels, hazardous materials indicators, and other previous shipment markings on the box that are no longer applicable

o Wrap all items separately

o Use adequate cushioning material

o Use strong tape designed for shipping

o Do not use string or paper over-wrap

o Use a single address label that has clear, complete delivery and return information

o Place a duplicate address label inside the package

FREEDOMS OF THE AIR FREIGHT

These are part of Chicago convention and they include transit rights and traffic rights.

Freedo

mDescription

1st the right to fly over a foreign country without landing

2nd the right to refuel or carry out maintenance in a foreign country without embarking or disembarking passengers or cargo

3rd the right to fly from one's own country to another

4th the right to fly from another country to one's own

5th the right to fly between two foreign countries on a flight originating or ending in one's own country

6th the right to fly from a foreign country to another while stopping in one's own country for non-technical reasons

7th the right to fly between two foreign countries while not offering flights to one's own country

8th the right to fly inside a foreign country, continuing to one's own country

9th the right to fly inside a foreign country without continuing to one's own country

AIR NAVIGATION SYSTEM

The Air Navigation System (ANS) Plan describes short-term and medium-term initiatives aimed at meeting customers’ requirements.

The ANS Plan can be explained in following sections:

• Performance Based Navigation (PBN)

• Communications

• Surveillance

• Air Traffic Management (ATM)

• Aeronautical Information Management (AIM)

• Aviation Weather

AIR FREIGHT: FUEL COST

Because fuel consumption is roughly proportional to the aircraft weight and the distance flown, the marginal cost for carrying cargo is computed based on weight and destination.

In the short run, higher fuel prices are expected to result in slower growth of air cargo traffic or even in a possible downturn. Over the longer run, traffic should continue to grow, but air freight will increasingly be integrated into multimodal supply chains that provide a better balance between cost and time.

AIR FREIGHT: ULD

A unit load device (ULD) is a pallet or container used to load luggage, freight, and mail on wide-body aircraft and specific narrow-body aircraft.

It allows a large quantity of cargo to be bundled into a single unit. Since this leads to fewer units to load, it saves ground crews time and effort and helps prevent delayed flights.

Each ULD has its own packing list so that its contents can be tracked.

ULDs come in two forms: pallets and containers.

AIR FREIGHT: BILL OF LADING

A freight forwarder offering a consolidation service, will issue its own air waybill or bill of lading.

These act as contracts of carriage between the shipper and the forwarder, who in this case becomes a Deemed Carrier.

The forwarder in turn enters into contracts with one or more carriers, often using more than one mode of transportation.

A House Air Waybill (HAWB) or Bill of Lading (HBL) could act as a multimodal transport document.

AIR FREIGHT: EQUIPMENT

Derivatives of non-cargo aircraft, Dedicated civilian cargo aircraft, Joint civil-military cargo aircraft are different types of cargo aircrafts.

Early air mail and airlift logistics aircraft, Civilian cargo/freight aircraft, Light aircraft, Military cargo aircraft are some of the examples.

As said earlier, Unit Load Device (ULD) is container used in air freight and of two forms, pallets type(LD7, LD8, LD11), and container type(LD1, LD2, LD3-45, LD6, LD8, LD11)

ULD pallets are rugged sheets of aluminium with rims designed to lock onto cargo net lugs. ULD containers, also known as cans and pods, are closed containers made of aluminium or combination of aluminium (frame) and Lexan (walls), which, depending on the nature of the goods to be transported, may have built-in refrigeration units.

SMALL PACKAGE: ROLES OF POST OFFICE, COURIERS AND OTHER PROVIDERS

Post offices offer mail-related services such as acceptance and delivery of small packages, weight depending on the specifications of each country.

A courier is a person who delivers small packages and mostly owned by private companies.

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone and also referred by several other names is an aircraft without a human pilot aboard. These are also used by e-commerce companies to deliver small packages to customers.

These three play a major role in transit and delivery of small packages.

POST OFFICE: ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

Advantages are: The postage is low

Simplicity

Globalization

All the small products can be delivered (except prohibited goods)

Disadvantages are: It is slow

There is always a delay for post to deliver the goods

Sometimes, the package may be returned or missing during transit.

COURIER: ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

Advantages of courier services include greater security and greater care with your package because less people are involved in the delivery process.

The disadvantages of courier services are higher costs and less resources because of the smaller company size.

DRONES: ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

Advantages are: low cost

low risk

Operational hours

Accuracy

Deployment

Disadvantages are: limited abilities

Take over by recipient

SMALL PACKAGE: TYPES OF EQUIPMENT

Technology and resources are major equipment for small package transport.

Types of items to transport and the geographical area to serve, package size and content, biohazardous, chemical or perishable items, a dependable vehicle based upon the services offered, permits and licenses, insurance, independent contractors, reliable method, are various equipment needed for transit and delivery of small package.

SMALL PACKAGE: RATES

The rates in transit of small package depends upon the weight of the package and distance of the destination from origin.

It also offers express service and registered postal/courier services with extra cost and faster delivery.

Subtle goods which require special packaging also demands extra rates on the special packing equipment.

SMALL PACKAGE: BOL

BOL for small package is also called way bill. A waybill is a document issued by a carrier/post office/courier giving details and instructions relating to the shipment of a consignment of goods.

Typically it will show the names of the consignor and consignee, the point of origin of the consignment, its destination, and route.

These typically contain "conditions of contract of carriage" terms on the back of the form. These terms cover limits to liability and other terms and conditions.

SMALL PACKAGE: FREIGHT FORWARDERS

Post offices and courier services are major freight forwarders of small packages.

They may use either persons or drones for delivery depending on the resources and technology available with them.

Post offices are mostly owned by governments of nations and courier services are mostly owned by the private companies.

SMALL PACKAGE : EQUIPMENT

Small carton boxes, envelopes, poly-ethylene covers, vacuum sealers, shrink wrappers, strapping equipment, and package sealers are various kinds of equipment used for small package.

They may also use light metal containers of small size for delivery with the help of drones.

SMALL PACKAGE: CARRIER EQUIPMENT (ULD)

Depending upon the size and weight of the shipment, the container can be selected for the small packages.

Standard sized equipment is available with the carriers and they vary from carrier to carrier.

The cost of delivery also varies depending on the type and size of equipment chosen for packaging.

SMALL PACKAGE: INTERMODAL

The advantage of both Intermodal Transport is given by the most efficient combination of multiple transport modes, optimizing lead times, reducing inventory costs and keeping the level of freight costs under control. This combination results in increased environmental sustainability, reducing the transportation carbon footprint.

Intermodal allows shippers to cut transportation costs without sacrificing service. LTL is used to asses intermodal transportation.

SMALL PACKAGE:SERVICE PROVIDERS

a. Airlines: most of the airlines provide small package transport facilities basing on their available resources.

b. Post: All post offices provide small package transport facility with their standard and specific rates.

c. Bus: Small package transit by bus depends on the usage of the vehicle by different carriers and service providers.

d. Courier: Now-a-days, courier is the most reliable source for small package transit and delivery.

e. Less Than Truckload Rates – LTL: weight, density, distance, base rates, and minimums decide the LTL rates of different service providers.

SMALL PACKAGE: BILL OF LADING

A bill of lading is firstly a receipt: the carrier acknowledges that the goods have been received for carriage. But it is also evidence of the contract of carriage. The contract commences at the time the freight space is booked. The subsequent issue of the bill of lading confirms this and provides evidence of the contract, even though it is signed by only one party: the carrier or its agents.

A bill of lading is also a transferable document of title. Goods can be delivered by handing over a bill of lading provided the shipment was consigned 'to order' and all the subsequent endorsements are in order.