Cargo iQ elects two new board members

Air cargo industry quality initiative Cargo iQ has appointed two new board members and re-elected its chair and vice chair for a further two-year term.

Fedor Novikov, marketing director for Volga-Dnepr Group and Clark Fritzsch, global head of air freight business process management at Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, join Henrik Ambak, chair of Cargo iQ and senior vice president for cargo operations worldwide at Emirates SkyCargo, and Kerstin Strauss, vice chair of Cargo iQ and vice president for air logistics operations at Kuehne + Nagel, on the board of the air cargo interest group.

The new board members were formally welcomed to their posts at Cargo iQ’s Working Group (WG) last month, attended by over 100 people.

“For the last 18 months, the role of air cargo has been more visible as the entire cargo industry delivered vital supplies across the globe in the battle against the Covid-19 spread,” said Novikov. “Now it is time to scale up initiatives and implement projects and plans aimed at further enhancing the quality of the supply chain.

“I think that Cargo iQ is on the right track with this as it has been nurturing an innovative spirit since the first day of its work.”

The two new Board members are also joined by Emanuel Hille, director of eCargo solutions at CHAMP Cargosystems – who is replacing Laurent Jossa, CHAMP Cargosystems, as an observer of the board.

The Cargo iQ Board is made up of 13 voting members, including representatives from Agility Logistics, Air France KLM Martinair, AirBridgeCargo, Cargomind (Austria), Cathay Pacific, DB Schenker, DHL Global Forwarding, Emirates SkyCargo, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, Kuehne + Nagel, Lufthansa Cargo, Qatar Airways Cargo and Swissport International, supported by observer CHAMP Cargosystems and advisor Im3Pact.

“As the airfreight community has been quite fragmented in terms of standards in quality control and transparency, joining the one interest group that is fully committed to finding a solution across most participants within the air freight supply chain is the best way in pushing this industry into the ‘23rd century’,” said Fritzsch. “I hope and believe I can add an additional view to move the agenda forward.”

Cargo iQ’s key objectives for this year were agreed during the WG. These were defined as:

• Achieving 100% reporting
• Making active efforts to reach out to and engage with small and medium sized forwarders that do not currently utilise the benefits of Cargo iQ
• Ensure Cargo iQ truly enact its Quality Management System (QMS) by enhancing its service delivery support functionality in addition to post-event reporting

“Cargo iQ’s objectives for 2021 are designed to move closer to our overall goal of 100% visibility in a concise manner and support the parts of the community which need our QMS most,” said Henrik Ambak. “Both AirBridgeCargo and Hellmann have shown their commitment to Cargo iQ’s objectives and their contribution as Board members will accelerate and support our progression.”

Novikov replaces a Board seat vacated by Mark Albrecht, Director-Cargo Logistics, Compliance, Finance, United Airlines and Fritzsch replaces Markus Muecke, Managing Director, Im3pact AG who has moved from being a voting member of the Board to an advisor for the Board.

Sub Working Groups

Sub Working Groups (SWGs), formed of airlines, forwarders, Ground Handling Agents, Cargo Data Management Platform providers, plus observers, discussed eight areas of focus for Cargo iQ members to work on in coming months during the WG. These included Cargo Messaging, Care Protocols, Smart Data, and a final review of suggested changes to Cargo iQ’s Audit process.

Improvements to its Master Operating Plan, as well as updates for its ENCORE platform, which maintains offset agreements between carrier and forwarder members, were also discussed.

SWGs also spoke about Cargo iQ’s Exception Handling Code Procedure and looked into ways for Road Feeder Service providers to complement airlines in their offline procedures. The SWGs have set schedules for additional meetings between now and November 2021, when they will report back on findings to Cargo iQ members and observers.

Cargo iQ has 64 members and is a collaborative, multi-stakeholder, supply-chain community that continuously improves the air cargo customer experience.