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SECOND CITY SIGHTS CONFERFENCE REPORT • NOW IN ITS 15TH YEAR, LABELMASTER’S DANGEROUS GOODS SYMPOSIUM HAS BECOME A MUST-ATTEND EVENT FOR ALL INVOLVED IN THE HAZMAT BUSINESS LABELMASTER’S 2019 DANGEROUS Goods Symposium drew a big crowd to Chicago this past 4 to 6 September, with a varied programme of presentations and networking events. It was a welcome return to the downtown area, with its many attractions and
ever-changing regulations and the many other challenges they face. “We have brought together the most prominent industry thought leaders, regulators and trainers to provide insights and practical advice that will help you navigate the DG issues you face most often,”
distractions, after last year’s trip out to the airport, and the hundreds of attendees were certainly well fed and watered. Labelmaster’s aim is, through its competitively priced event, to help its customers and other players in the dangerous goods (DG) supply chain to keep up with
said Alan Schoen, president of Labelmaster, in his introduction.
HCB MONTHLY | NOVEMBER 2019
WHAT THE PROS SAY The first matter to be dealt with, as it has in recent years, was the annual Global DG Confidence Outlook Survey, undertaken by
Labelmaster with the help of HCB and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) for the fourth year running. The survey looks at how DG professionals see their role in their organisation and among their supply chain partners and each year has highlighted some of the most intractable problems they face. A relatively brief report on the results of the survey was given by Rob Finn (left), vice-president of Labelmaster, HCB’s editorin-chief Peter Mackay, and Nick Carlone, assistant director of cargo publications at IATA. That presentation was summarised in an earlier article (HCB October 2019, page 110) but there are some salient points that deserve highlighting. Firstly, it is generally accepted by DG professionals that responded to the survey that the supply chain has a positive commercial impact on their company. On the other hand, only 20 per cent said they were confident of their capabilities to handle the growing sector of reverse logistics, which is being fed by the rise in e-commerce. The survey had also defined what Rob Finn described as three ‘tribes’ within the DG community: those who are confident of their ability to handle future demands; those who are up to speed at the moment but wary of the future; and those who cannot even cope right now. One of the defining features of this situation is the level of use of digital and other IT systems: those who are most confident tend to be those with the most IT at their disposal. Interestingly, the survey showed that use of IT is lower among North American DG professionals than those in other parts of the world; it is not clear why this should be but it is one topic that will be interrogated in more detail in the 2020 survey. Labelmaster has made the full survey results freely available on its website, and the document is well worth a read. It can be found at www.labelmaster.com/dgconfidence-outlook/. GOOD BUSINESS An interesting take on DG compliance came later in the Symposium from Frank McGuigan, CEO of Transplace. “Managing DG transport takes a lot of information and
