DC Velocity - February 2020

cess,” says Shawn Cole, vice president of Atlanta-based Delta Cargo. In response, Delta introduced Bluetooth ULD (unit load device) tracking for its containers in 2018, “which enhances our ability to manage our ULD fleet,” he notes.

The company also has outfitted 86 warehouses with ULD Bluetooth readers, while 208 of its domestic customers also have readers. Out on the runway, Delta Cargo has readers at 51 airside ramps and has outfitted 13,974 of its ULD containers with tracking tags—all designed to increase the speed, reliability, and accuracy of shipment tracking.

It has also launched Delta Dash Door-to-Door, a unique same-day delivery service in partnership with Roadie, which operates a crowdsourced network of on-demand, same-day delivery drivers across the U.S. Roadie’s “on the way” model sources drivers in their own vehicles who are already headed to a delivery point.

Cole says that “Dash Door-to-Door was created for time-critical shipments in industries including medical, manufacturing, automotive, and industrial parts” that need reliable, expedited aircargo service. Under the program, Dash Door-to-Door pairs TSA-approved Roadie drivers with scheduled aircargo service. Delta Cargo provides the “belly freight” air linehaul capacity, while Roadie does the first- and last-mile transport, principally on a same-day basis. It’s an integrated service currently available from Atlanta to over 55 cities in the U.S.

POISED FOR A REBOUND?

What does the future have in store for air freight?

From a macroeconomic standpoint, the picture is brightening. After a year of contraction in 2019, the worldwide aircargo market is poised again for growth, albeit modest, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), a Montreal-based airline trade group. “Freight traffic fell 3% [to 61. 2 million metric tons], while yields declined 5%” in 2019, says Andrew Matters, IATA’s deputy chief economist.

Matters notes that IATA’s expectations are
for a small recovery in demand in 2020,
with traffic forecast to grow 2%. However,
IATA also projects that cargo yields, com-
Amazon and others, are splitting
out what once was a consolidated
service into an à la carte menu
of specific services from which the
shipper can pick and choose.

For Pilot, says Hill, working with Amazon has been a game-chang-er. “It’s been phenomenal; they’ve made us a better company, pushed us to achieve stretch goals … to a degree we never thought we could do. Now, our overall offering for every customer is better because of how Amazon pushed us.” Pilot supports Amazon DCs and vendors, doing the full door-to-door service including pickup, linehaul delivery, and last mile, as well as white-glove “inside the home” delivery and installation of big and bulky items.

Hill recalls the day when as an
airfreight forwarder, your focus was
the B2B decision-maker. “Now,
He shares a story of a recent sales
call, where a retailer reached out to
Pilot and asked for a meeting. “I
asked them ‘Why were we consid-
ered?’ He told me ‘You guys did an
Amazon delivery to my house and
did it better than everyone else. And
that’s why I’m talking to you now.’”

PASSENGER LINES GET IN ON THE ACT

Meanwhile, the aircargo divisions of passenger airlines also are upping their game and investing in technology to provide better visibility as well as more reliable delivery of freight that moves in the bellies of passenger jets. Delta Cargo, for example, has invested on several fronts. “It became clear that [cus-tomers] wanted complete transparency in the cargo shipment pro-