Ensuring 100% cargo security is of importance throughout the supply chain process. Be it dangerous goods, perishables, temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical products, luxury items and live animals—airlines, airport operators and forwarders must adhere to regulations of the authorities for ensuring 100% safety and security.
Ritika Arora Bhola
Pradeep Panicker, CEO, GMR Hyderabad International Airport, said, “Regulating dangerous goods is crucial to mitigate risks, with adherence to regulations across various modes of transport and global jurisdictions. Staying abreast of the regulatory updates poses a challenge. Preparation of documentation for each shipment is essential, detailing classification, quantities, and storage needs to avoid delays, fines, or rejections, including potential embargoes by airlines. Personnel involved in handling dangerous goods, spanning packers, warehouse staff, and drivers, must undergo specific training and hold certifications to ensure safe management of risks. Specialised facilities tailored for storing dangerous goods are indispensable, designed to contain leaks, fires, and explosions, adhering to local and global norms, while requiring diligent maintenance. Accidents involving dangerous goods, such as spills, leaks, fires, or explosions, can precipitate severe environmental impacts.”
Sanjiv Edward, CEO, Cargo, GMR Group, said, “Regulatory norms for packaging, labelling, documentation, Emergency Response Process Guidelines, which have been defined, are followed thoroughly. However, the lack of awareness of shippers regards to regulations of shipping dangerous goods during offloading/X-Ray scanning, which results in a disruption of flow of cargo processing, in the otherwise seamless acceptance of cargo. Deficiency of skillset amongst those involved in transportation of dangerous goods to airport cargo terminal can be detrimental to air freight. Any error in handling of such goods at any stage, possess imminent hazards to both airport personnel and cargo, if not handled cautiously.”
Efficient solutions
“A uniform global regulation and SOP can simplify this process. Best practice sharing and collaboration among stakeholders can help overcome challenges. Deploying smart warehousing systems enables real-time monitoring of data, allowing for proactive interventions as and when required. Mandated refresher trainings ensure personnel handling dangerous goods stay updated with the latest regulations and safety norms. Regular emergency drills and simulations are essential to ensure all resources deployed are well prepared to respond effectively in emergencies. Having a well-prepared Emergency Response Plan (ERP) for incidents involving dangerous goods is crucial, ensuring everyone knows their roles and responsibilities during emergencies,” Panicker said.
“At Delhi airport, we conduct regular training and exercises to keep cargo personnel up to date regarding the latest measures on handlings dangerous goods. Additionally, DIAL follows necessary safeguards rigorously, which are important, while handling such cargo, including imparting dangerous goods training, which is certified and valid at the time of handling such goods. Ensure infrastructure and process all along the way to transport such goods—PPE for all staff handling dangerous goods, secluded area earmarked for handling, specialised transport vehicle, emergency response readiness and infrastructure thereof, environmentally friendly/green process of discharging any residue or remains of such product, while handing of such goods. At Delhi airport, we reiterate safety and regulations by displaying dangerous goods educative signage at prominent places at terminal and use technology, such as AI, to simulate handling and processing, including past data and records of any accidents/prevention with help of data science,” Edward opined.
Ensuring cargo security
“Delhi airport has allocated sufficient space to handle HAZMAT with specialised and certified manpower. We have invested in necessary infrastructure such as isolated locations, emergency response, chemical/smoke detectors and other timely detection infrastructure. Further, we ensure periodic certification from respective regulators to handle dangerous goods. Also, terminal operators at Delhi have global certification for warehouse operations such as ISOs and GDP among others. DIAL indulges in intermittent audits—internal and external, which are conducted for any eventuality, including drills/programmes by government agencies. We continue to invest in people and processes for safe and secure handling of dangerous goods from our airports,” Edward said.
Thomas Schürmann, Head, Cargo Operations & Delivery, Etihad Cargo, said, “We have established working instructions as documented in Etihad Cargo’s internal policies in line with all applicable regulatory frameworks. These instructions guide our handling partners on the acceptance, handling, storage, loading and unloading of cargo transported on Etihad Cargo’s aircraft, including specialised products, such as perishables, pharma, valuable cargo, and dangerous goods. Ensuring our products meet the highest global standards, Etihad Cargo’s PharmaLife, FreshForward, LiveAnimals and SkyStables products possess IATA CEIV certification.”
The carrier ensures cargo is secured from acceptance through to loading at the departure point and on arrival, from unloading through to cargo delivery to the consignee. Measures have been put in place to ensure the proper chain of custody is maintained in compliance with local and regulatory needs. Screening cargo and providing proof of screening for all shipments, protecting consignments through 24×7 CCTV monitoring, and performing random checks in a bid to ensure compliance with the established procedures.
Apart from SafeGuard products, we offer priority loading and unloading of shipments at both origin and destination airports and transportation in sealed valuable cargo boxes or containers. As an extra layer of security, Etihad Cargo complies with the requirements of the Pre-Loading Advance Cargo Information requirements. This is a requirement implemented in many nations that require shipments arriving at certain destinations be pre-cleared by the required regulatory authority before uplift. Etihad Cargo complies 100 per cent with these requirements and ensures that any cargo not cleared is not uplifted.
These initiatives include the use of checklists to ensure safety compliance during acceptance of specific cargo products, package integrity checks during acceptance, build-up, loading and unloading and easy-to-access safety reporting tool with an interface to ensure that everyone can make a report. Once the reports are received, they are analysed in order to identify the trends and improvements to relevant working instructions. On top of these measures, we also have robust compliance monitoring programmes, which are significant to the transportation of dangerous goods.
Infrastructure
We have just opened our latest pharma facility, made up of three rooms that can store palletised and loose temperature-controlled cargo. This facility has been certified under Etihad Cargo’s IATA CEIV Pharma certification and will be certified under the IATA CEIV Fresh certification, currently in progress. The facility can accommodate temperatures from 2°C to 25°C and has doubled our cool chain storage and handling capabilities at our Abu Dhabi hub.
Pain points
Our goal is cent per cent compliance, and this is what we achieve. Etihad Cargo focuses on safety, security, and compliance-related aspects pertaining to loading, handling, and training. To ensure its handling operations are carried out safely and comply with all rules, oversight and supplier management are vital pillars of the carrier’s operations management. This surrounds a framework, including SLAs, and defined processes and procedures, such as a comprehensive Safety Management Systems.
