Panalpina and Cargolux make great strides in Cargo iQ performance

Together with Cargo iQ fellow member and long-standing partner Cargolux, Panalpina has just been awarded with the first prize of the first ever Cargo iQ Q Rally, an industry initiative aimed at continuously improving data quality in air freight. As Panalpina’s Marie Seco-Köppen explains, “Better data quality results in a better air freight product, for example in terms of shorter transit times.”

“The air freight industry is a fast-paced business – and much more complex than many people would think,” says Marie Seco-Köppen, corporate Air Freight systems and processes integration manager at Panalpina. “When air cargo is moved from A to B, it passes approximately 20 milestones, as defined by Cargo iQ.”

Cargo iQ is an IATA interest group, whose mission it is to create and implement quality standards for the worldwide air cargo industry. The group’s roughly 80 members – major airlines, freight forwarders, ground-handling agents, trucking companies and IT solution providers – have developed a system of shipment planning and performance monitoring for air cargo based on common business processes and standard milestones.

Ultimately, Cargo iQ’s activities help reduce costs and improve the commercial value of air freight, thereby contributing to a sustainably profitable industry.

As one of 13 board members and as a member of the group’s committee for Technology & Data, Panalpina plays a very active role in Cargo iQ, ensuring that the group follows a coherent technology strategy.

“The strategy has been laid out to enable the seamless connectivity of different IT systems, provide industry tools for controlling shipments and processes, support automation, capture shipment data and improve data quality, completeness and real-time availability. We want to build a platform where we can analyze, control and – through continuous learning – improve air cargo shipments,” says Seco-Köppen.

In 2018, Panalpina has defined and worked on over 30 Cargo iQ improvement projects with airlines.

In the first ever Cargo iQ Q Rally, Panalpina worked together with Cargo iQ fellow member and long-standing partner Cargolux to significantly improve data quality and performance at Luxembourg Airport. The joint team was able to improve the quality rating at Luxembourg Airport from 69 to 94 per cent in just six months, beating the target that they set for themselves by nine percentage points.

The successful initiative in Luxembourg has just been awarded with the first prize by Cargo iQ. 14 Cargo iQ members in total took part in the group’s first data quality challenge of this sort.

“This great achievement and the award show that we are on the right track with Cargo iQ and that local Air Freight teams, in close collaboration with their partners, can take ownership to greatly improve data quality. Best possible data quality is crucial because it impacts many areas including shipment visibility and ultimately the management of our customers’ supply chains. Better data quality results in a better air freight product, for example in terms of shorter transit times,” explains Seco-Köppen.