The challenge presented by road feeder slot management systems
Slot management systems seem to make perfect sense by helping avoid congestion and delays at cargo handler facilities by managing truck arrival times, but there remain plenty of challenges with the solutions.
At last month's Aviation Connect event in Athens, Ivan Santoro, head of sales at Road Feeder Service (RFS) provider Georgi Transport, described slot management systems as "challenging".
The first issue, he said, was that slots were sometimes not available at the times required to meet schedules.
However, the biggest challenge is the fact that trucking operations are dynamic and the systems are not always able to take into account the fluid nature of road transport.
"We cannot predict what is happening throughout the trucking journey," he said. "Sometimes the arrival times are unpredictable - you have a slot that is meant to start at a certain time, but they can be stuck in traffic. Things like that make the entire operation more challenging."
John Dowds, senior vice president, service delivery for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at cargo handler WFS agreed that improvements could be made.
"Sometimes we put staff on that are expected to interface a truck that isn't there for whatever reason," he said.
"A lot of this data is available, real-time data - the messaging systems allow for us to know if it has been delayed or a potential estimated time of arrival.
"And then on our side, honouring the bookings but also holding to account the large number of no-shows."
He added: "Most of the problems we incur and see on both sides are fixable. There is nothing insurmountable that I can see, but we have to be aligned."
Santoro added that some of the challenges stem from the fact that RFS providers have no contractual link to the cargo handlers; they are both suppliers to the airline.
Jason Breakwell, group commercial officer at RFS firm Wallenborn, added that the agreements that the airline has with the RFS provider and the handler often don't match up in terms of standards.
He called for the recently launched International Road Feeder Association (IRFA), of which Wallenborn is a founding member, to look into creating a Standard Ground Transportation Agreement that aligns with the Standard Ground Handling Agreement.
On the challenge of monitoring truck progress and updating handlers on arrival times where there are delays, Narendra Wadhwa, managing director of RFS firm Airlift Services India, said that his company monitored the progress of its vehicles in three ways.
It uses GPS systems, drivers' mobile phones and road tolls, which are all connected with the company's Transport Management Systems.
"We are working on the ability where the standardised messaging (SDM) goes to the airline system without us having to trigger anything.
"The airline can choose how often the system is updated, for instance every two hours or 30 minutes, so a customer sitting anywhere in the world tracking an RFS in India can see it on the airline portal without having anything to do with us."
There was also a call for airports to be involved in any discussions on slot management systems as they are often the ones that manage the road infrastructure around the airport and may need to provide truck parking areas and associated control mechanisms to ensure the drivers aren't arriving too early and unnecessarily taking spaces.
One of the key tasks of the IRFA is indeed to develop standards for slot allocation.
Elsewhere, the IRFA will look to develop a standard contract and service level agreement; data standards for cargo on the road to support real-time cargo visibility; sustainability; and improve driver access to facilities at airport cargo terminals.
The IRFA said that slot allocation at airports is one of the biggest challenges faced by RFS operators, which "lose many truck and driver hours due to insufficient slot allocation at airport cargo terminals...which often further can lead to service failures as flight connections are missed or ready for pick-up promises not met".
"[The] IRFA wishes, with the ground handlers, to create solid standards for slot allocation for truck loading and off-loading, reducing service failures and increasing service efficiency," the association said.
