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Truck and Track
Summer 2019
www.truckandtrack.com54
DANGEROUS GOODS
Electronic means of communicating has become the norm for
most of us. Wewrite emails instead of letters, sendmessages to
each other over the mobile networks, and use on-line systems
for everything from shopping to checking in for a flight. This
evolution is having an impact on the movement of goods by all
means of transport and, for dangerous goods (DG) in particular,
it will have many advantages.
Apart fromthe reduction inpaperwork, themove towards electronic
standards has many other benefits, such as:
■■
Savings in time and cost.
■■
Significant reductions in the number of consignments being
snagged for incorrect documentation.
■■
Improvements in safety.
■■
The elimination of manual transactions and changes to the
paperwork during a journey.
■■
Reducing the need to repeat data entry on all the required forms
that accompany each consignment. E-Freight will consolidate
the data shown on all transport documents such as the Air
Waybill (AWB), Bill of Lading (BoL), CMR Note and Dangerous
Goods Declaration (DGN).
The idea of electronic DG documentation is not new. However, until
now, it has not been straightforward to put into practice. For the
process to work from the sender to the recipient, all the systems in
the supply chainneed to accept auniversal standard of data sharing
- and this will apply to Shippers, Forwarders, Carriers, Consignees
and the Regulators.
The regulations already allow for e-documentation, provided that
there is a means to access hard copies if necessary. Furthermore,
the International Air Transport Association (IATA) is keen for the DG
industry to adopt E-Freight as the basis for data transfer as soon as
possible.
In its standard form, DGOffice generates compliant DG
documentation for all transport modes by calculating the hazards
of a consignment and referencing them to the regulations. It is a
cost-effective solution that operates internationally and meets the
demandsofthevariationsinregulationsaroundtheworld.However,
the company is also at the leading edge of E-Freight technology
and Herman Teering has been involved in its development since the
concept was first considered over 10 years ago.
I began, therefore, by asking Herman:
“How does E-Freight
work?”
HT: Well, E-Freight in general is meant to support the complete
logistics chain, but keeping it to Dangerous Goods, it is intended to
reduce the current use of paperwork to zero by replacing it with a
digital version of, for instance, the Shippers Declaration and share
that dataset between the parties involved.
RS: Can you explain how those involved in each stage of the
supply chain will benefit from E-Freight?
HT: It all starts with the Shipper being the owner of 95% of the data
involved in a Dangerous Goods shipment. The Shipper generates the
declaration in the normal way. Upon finalising, he generates a digital
version of the declaration, being an XML dataset. That XML is sent to
the Forwarder either via e-mail or other tools.
The Forwarder will check if the message has the correct format AND
validate the content of the XML against the regulations. When all is
correct, the Forwarder will add the AWB number (if not in already)
and make sure that both the correct station of loading and unloading
are added. In turn, the Forwarder will send the XML to the Airline or
Ground Handling agent to perform the pre-check before the cargo
arrives.
Go Paperless!
The Future of Multimodal Dangerous Goods Documentation
Richard Shreeve, Compliance Manager at
Labeline International, asks Herman Teering,
Managing Director of the world-leading
dangerous goods software specialists, DGOffice,
to explain how E-Freight is set to revolutionise
the way we ship dangerous goods.
Richard Shreeve
Herman Teering