The cargo handlers at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport are taking the Smart Cargo Mainport Program (SCMP) to another level by digitizing the pre-notification of export cargo as from 01JAN21.
To this end, Worldwide Flight Services, dnata, Air France KLM Martinair Cargo, Menzies Aviation Netherlands B.V., and Swissport Cargo Services all signed a document on Monday 14SEP20.
The aim of this digitalization is to make the delivery process, administrative processing, and loading/unloading of export goods at the airport more efficient, sustainable, safer, and more
reliable. “Thanks to digital or electronic pre-notification, this can, by and large, be done without any personal contact which, in the one-and-a-half-meter society, is an absolute
necessity,” says the industry’s umbrella, Air Cargo Netherlands (ACN).
Priority for participants
“This is the improvement in quality we have been working towards for years. Not participating will mean joining the back of the queue,” says Jeroen Giling, Director Cargo at
Swissport Cargo Services, and Chairman of the ACN Sector Council Ground Handlers. “For us, digital pre-notification is THE method to bid farewell to the elements that slow down the
sector.”
To encourage participation, haulers and forwarders who work with the system will receive priority in the handling process from 2021. The handling agents hope that this will prompt as many as
possible of the estimated 150 active forwarders at the airport to work with the system.
The tool for the electronic pre-notification from 01JAN21 is the eLink application. The eLink project falls under the umbrella of the Smart Cargo Mainport Program (SCMP) at Schiphol. Haulers,
forwarders, ground handling agents, can, and the airport are working together within the SCMP on projects to improve the efficiency of the airport.
Marcel Schoeters
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