Kuehne+Nagel (K+N) and cargo handler Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) have developed a trucking control tower to speed up the handling of the forwarder’s cargo at Frankfurt Airport.
The pilot scheme was developed by WFS’ E-commerce & Freight Forwarder Handling (EFFH) team and K+N and involves the use of the control tower to schedule truck movements between WFS’ FCS Frankfurt Cargo Services facility and the forwarder’s gateway warehouse .
The control tower also processes all customer requests and enquiries immediately.
Early results show “significant improvements” in air cargo delivery times, WFS, which owns FCS, said.
Using the control tower means WFS/FCS do not have to wait until a freight forwarder’s truck driver registers at its Frankfurt facility to commence the cargo outsourcing process.
Instead, import cargo is loaded onto WFS/FCS’ own trucks and delivered directly to the forwarder with close communication between both parties.
K+N vice president Michael Jonas said: “This pilot project in Frankfurt is designed to show us how the handling and clearance processes developed for WFS’ EFFH product can significantly accelerate air cargo delivery in the import process by reducing clearance times.
“By implementing these processes within the cargo operation, any necessary adjustments can be made quickly to enable more efficient resource planning and utilisation.”
WFS’ Soheyl Rahmani added: “With this enhanced import delivery service, we are working to make the import cargo handling process more efficient to enable us to offer freight forwarders in Frankfurt a more reliable and cost-efficient service moving forward.”
He added that he hoped the pilot scheme could “lead to broader import handling benefits for the wider cargo community at the airport”.
The EFFH team is also reviewing the “implementation and optimisation” of e-commerce and freight forwarding products at all WFS locations in the Europe, Middle East, Afric and Asia region.