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LATAM Cargo embraces VR for warehouse staff training

LATAM Cargo has begun using Virtual Reality (VR) technology to train warehouse personnel at its Miami Airport facility. The airline said that the VR technology enables its teams to "practice, manage, and respond to real-time scenarios within a controlled digital environment". In its initial phase, the VR training programme will be used by approximately 550 staff members, including 250 forklift operators. "Unlike conventional training methods, the immersive platform captures precise behavioural metrics, including contingency response times as well as the immediate identification and mitigation of hazards," the airline explained. The simulators feature scenarios across six distinct warehouse pedestrian zones and three specialised modules for forklift drivers. "During training, personnel navigate high-risk procedures such as dangerous goods segregation, cargo handling, pedestrian traffic flow, and machinery separation protocol, boosting their overall situational awareness," the carrier explained. There was an initial rollout of the technology at the Fast Air warehouse in Santiago before the Miami addition, which is described as a "major scale-up, adding broader operational scenarios". The company is currently assessing the expansion of this VR training system to other strategic hubs across its network, including Brazil. LATAM Cargo chief operating officer Daniel Leng said: "Integrating Virtual Reality at our Miami hub marks a key step in our operational safety strategy. By placing our teams in critical operational scenarios within an exact replica of their daily work environment, we significantly close the gap between classroom theory and ramp practice."

Port of Singapore faces new challenges - but also new opportunities

Singapore's position as a global container transhipment hub depends on its ability to remain competitive within international liner shipping networks, as rival ports accelerate investment in digitalisation and automation. At the Singapore Port Workers Union's 80th anniversary dinner on Sunday, senior minister Lee Hsien Loong (pictured) said Singapore's port competitiveness could not be taken for granted, and warned that complacency at PSA International risked losing business to competing ports. Unlike major Chinese gateways such as Shanghai and Ningbo-Zhoushan, which benefit from substantial domestic volumes, Singapore relies heavily on transhipment traffic and its role as a connecting hub for global shipping lines. Maintaining this position required the port to continually improve efficiency, productivity, and operational capabilities to remain attractive to carriers, he said. Mr Lee, who was Singapore's prime minister from 2004 to 2024, cited Shanghai's Yangshan port as an example of a competitor making significant advances in automation and digitalisation. As rival ports upgrade their infrastructure and operations, Singapore would need to continue investing to preserve its competitive edge and retain shipping customers. The challenge is particularly important as Singapore consolidates container operations from Tanjong Pagar, Brani, Keppel ,and Pasir Panjang at Tuas. The new port is expected to have an annual handling capacity of 65m teu by the 2040s, with technology playing a central role in increasing throughput and maximising productivity, amid the country's land constraints. Singapore handled almost 45m teu in 2025, while throughput in the first half of this year was up 4.7% year on year, to 22.7m teu. Mr Lee's warning reflected Singapore's experience in the 2000s, when it lost Taiwan's Evergreen to Malaysia's new Tanjung Pelepas port, prompting PSA to cut jobs in 2003, and restructure operations to restore competitiveness. Although Evergreen returned to Singapore in 2024 after securing a terminal concession with PSA, the episode illustrates the risks of losing business in an industry where shipping lines can redirect their networks towards competing hubs. Mr Lee said: "Apart from competition from other ports, the industry itself is transforming in fundamental ways. Supply chain disruptions, climate change, geopolitical tensions are all affecting shippers and port operators. Rapid advances in AI, autonomous technology, sensors, and robotics are already dramatically transforming port operations." For Singapore, maintaining its position would, therefore, depend on more than expanding capacity at Tuas: it would require sustained technological advancement and continuous adaptation to the changing demands of global liner shipping networks, he said. Mr Lee added: "These developments present new challenges, but also new opportunities. There'll be higher-value tasks which are less physically demanding; better jobs, centred on data, judgment, and decision making. PSA must keep abreast of these changes and reinvent itself.....to turn these new challenges into opportunities."

DSV, not K+N, the golden goose

Ahead of the T&L earnings season kick-off in the US today with intermodal and trucking bellwether JB Hunt, the sell-side analysts as usual put in some effort advising investors about 'how to position' their portfolios. Several top names high on the agenda, price targets have been cut or raised - more of the former in recent times, in fact, apart from Expeditors and Mærsk - while their recommendations have been broadly reiterated, waiting for the next event. Hopefully, one bringing a stronger-than-expected ...