As of tomorrow, Brussels Airport, Air Cargo Belgium, and the entire BRUcargo community will be taking a giant leap in the further digitization of cargo processes. Leveraging the pioneering work with BRUCloud in past years, on the 1st of June the Digital Green Lane for digitizing the landside pick-up and delivery process will be fully implemented by 12 ground handling agents and freight forwarders, that combined represent 75% of the freight volumes at Brussels Airport.
The well-known BRUcloud data sharing platform, hosted by partner Nallian, that currently counts 12 different applications all digitising a specific aspect of the air cargo process, will be taken to the next level. Via a Memorandum of Understanding, 8 Freight Forwarders and 4 Ground Handling Agents agreed on the rollout of the Digital Green Lane starting the 1st of June. These companies are APA, BDP International, DHL Global Forwarding, DSV, Expeditors, Geodis, Kuehne + Nagel, Nippon Express, Aviapartner, dnata, Swissport and WFS.
The Digital Green Lane is a uniform standardized pick-up and delivery process between freight forwarders and ground handling agents, supported by the BRUcloud Landside Management applications. This means that all freight is being picked up or dropped off at a registered time slot, all freight information is shared digitally throughout the process and all actions during the pick-up and drop off process are registered by the driver on a mobile device.
The applications that make all this possible are the Slot Booking App, Freight Management App, Acceptance and Delivery App and Digital Desk App. By making use of these digital applications, all partners involved will be able to avoid waiting lines and optimise their capacity- and resource planning. The users of the Digital Green Lane applications will not only be working more efficient and paperless, it also gives them a priority service when picking up or delivering freight.
“We are proud to announce the commitment of these 12 pioneers, each of them engaged with a clear focus on a community approach, for the benefit of the entire cargo community at Brussels Airport. Their courage and strength are exemplary, and we wish to thank them for that. By establishing a single process, fully digitized, we aim to increase efficiency and visibility of the cargo flows which will greatly benefit importers/exporters choosing Brussels Airport as their air cargo gateway. These 12 companies that are forming the coalition of the willing, are vastly convinced that working together with the community is the only way to gain speed in the digital transition. With the support of the forwarder/airline and airline handling agent cluster, we will engage more and more companies in the next coming months. This “Big Bang” is a very crucial first step in the roadmap to digitise the airfreight industry. Air Cargo Belgium is planning more innovations that increase quality and efficiency in the near future, as this digital revolution forms part of the European Green Deal and the contribution of the air cargo industry to achieve its sustainability goals.”, says David Bellon, Chairman of Air Cargo Belgium.
“Digital transformation is at the core of our growth strategy with the cargo community at Brussels Airport. It will further enhance the efficiency, safety and compliance of our business processes, whilst meeting our sustainability goals. Having these 12 companies commit to the further rollout of the Digital Green Lane is an important and giant step for our airport, which will benefit their processes and services as well. Thanks to our BRUcloud platform, we are able to accelerate digitization, and make paperless processes the new standard. This realisation is a great example of what gives us an edge towards other airports, becoming the first fully digital cargo airport community globally.” says Geert Aerts, Director Cargo & Logistics at Brussels Airport.
With this large scale rollout on the 1st of June, already 75% of the freight volumes will be processed digitally. On the 1st of September, more companies will be able join the Digital Green Lane. With this project, BRUcargo has the ambition to be the first fully digitised air cargo community in the world.