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Milkman Mark III Text Eric Aarsen, General Manager VCK Logistics Air- & Oceanfreight Photography VCK Logistics
T
he milkman who with his milk float went from door to door delivering his orders is a scene from long ago. Or is it? Aren’t the DHL and PostNL vans racing through the streets to deliver parcels door to door not just Milkmen Mark II? Was the period between the ousting of the milkman by emerging supermarkets and the delivery of internet orders to the door, not just a short holiday period for the milkman? Internet and therefore data have given the milkman a second life. The Milkman Mark II is present more than ever and is now even involved in market development with his entry into the cargo community at Schiphol. For a few years now, part of the forwarding community has benefited from the use of the Milkrun Import as a smooth and efficient way of obtaining their import air cargo shipments from the second line warehouses. Such data supported solutions offer undeniable price, planning and sustainability advantages. The milkman is even diversifying now that Milkrun Export has been launched where he picks up rather than delivers. I am eagerly going to go into bat for this latest innovation. This initiative to have export cargo picked up at the forwarders instead of everyone queueing waiting to deliver it themselves to the first line warehouses can potentially be a solution to inefficiency existing between the first and second-line warehouses. These sorts of initiatives, however, only work if we share data appropriately within the chain. The data has to be qualitative in order to ensure that the correct truck picks up the correct cargo at the correct
time and that it is taken to the correct warehouse on time for the correct aircraft. This may sound like Swiss precision but all the information required to do this successfully is already available, we just have to structurally share it with each other. If you think further about the future, the Milkrun Export initiative could run as frequently as, you might say, a tram line past the doors of the forwarders picking up flight-oriented cargo shipments on a just in time basis. The driver would arrive at a forwarder and, using his tablet, advise which shipments he had come to load. The cargo would be ready-for-carriage as, on the basis of bookings made, the forwarder himself would otherwise not have been able to deliver it on time. This has the potential for the first line warehouses to be able to deliver a super-efficient handling process without the need for a lot of storage space as pickup would be flight-oriented and, therefore, just in time. The air cargo process defines itself with relatively simple basic principles but, as we sometimes say, there are a million exceptions to the rule. So, of course, there will be a whole catalogue of practical obstacles to be overcome but, if we give it a chance, so much will be possible with Milkrun Export in terms of substantially improving the position of Schiphol in relation to speed of processing, price as well as the physical environment. With regard to neighbouring airports but, more particularly, for the participants in the chain. Foresight is the essence of government. So, let’s all move forward. Milkman Mark III.
Cargo Magazine
