Air Cargo: It's All About Time.

• Author: PANG-CHING, KEOLA

Time's money. Plain and simple. For many businesses, every minute saved can mean thousands of dollars saved. That is the forecast for the air cargo industry for 2000 and beyond.

The air cargo industry has experienced its share of turbulence over the past years. Given the rapid pace of change in the air cargo industry, it becomes difficult to speculate about events too far off in the future. Growing competition, and the ever-moving goal toward improved service levels, has resulted in carriers investing more in capacity, products and networking.

The successful cargo service providers will understand their customers, embrace their total business, and help create solutions that include, but are not dominated by, transportation. This means that no matter what shape our dynamic industry takes moving forward, one element will remain constant for all of us: Change. That change will require a constant review of successful and innovative business models. No trend is more evident than the breathtaking advances we are seeing in information technology.

A trend in Alaska and throughout the world--customers wanting more and more supply chain management as an integral part of their cargo transportation services--has become more pronounced.

Service demands and expectations from the shipping community are, perhaps, the dominant issues driving changes in the industry. Shippers are searching for the highest possible performance level for their time-definite transportation schedules. In simple terms, shipments HAVE to be there--not early, not late, but ON TIME.

Time-definite sensitivity: The growth of express services of the integrators and express mail has changed expectations about delivery times. Customers globally are requesting the same express products from cargo and combination carriers. You can expect more carriers to offer improved time-definite levels of service. Whether it's a multimillion dollar bid, machine part, motion picture film, important medical vaccines, or even human transplant organs, the common denominator for all customers is extreme time sensitivity. Every minute can mean thousands of dollars in lost revenues for a business and every second can make all the difference to someone who's critically ill. The increasing amount of logistic suppliers at strategic airports is making it possible for businesses to reduce or eliminate large amounts of valuable stock. Business in high-growth industries producing high-value goods have learned that...