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AI could cut eight hours off air cargo collections, says handling chief

Artificial intelligence could save around eight hours per air cargo shipment, by allowing truck dispatch and collection planning to begin before the traditional release-order trigger. At Aviation Connect in Athens last week, CHI Cargo Group CEO Kai Domscheit said the air cargo industry was generating vast quantities of operational data, much of which remained trapped in emails, PDFs, scans, spreadsheets, and other unstructured formats. "The future of air cargo is not going to be a single platform," he said, arguing that the SaaS model was "dead". "It'll actually be an ecosystem, with AI bots speaking to each other." But Mr Domscheit urged that the first step towards meaningful automation was not deploying AI, but making the underlying data usable. "You need to get unstructured data structured. You need to put a context layer over it. Then you can start predicting. And once you've done that, only then you can start playing around with automation." The scale of the problem was illustrated by a single ULD, which Mr Domscheit said could generate more than 100 information flows at different stages of its journey, involving airlines, handlers, forwarders, airports, and other parties. He highlighted several examples at Frankfurt, including release orders that indicated cargo was ready when operational checks had not been completed; unclear information about whether cargo was loose or in a ULD; and multi-master shipments where not all the necessary release forms were available. The resulting inefficiencies included additional storage charges, empty truck runs, and wasted time, he said. Mr Domscheit said handler CHI had analysed the sequence of events around import cargo at Frankfurt and found information was available well before the release order. Under the current process, the release order acted as the trigger for dispatch, but he said AI could allow operators to anticipate the shipment, aircraft arrival, unloading and breakdown stages, and begin planning in parallel. "We could take this and move it [up to] 10 hours," he said. "We can work in parallel." However, despite these promising advances, Mr Domscheit cautioned against viewing AI as a straightforward replacement for people. "We still have the human in the loop," he said, adding that employees who embrace AI could become substantially more productive. The presentation also struck a more cautious note on physical automation. Humanoid robots may eventually play a role in air cargo, but Mr Domscheit said the industry should focus first on preparing its operations and data. "Treat data as a strategic asset, and prepare them properly - because it's all about data."

CH Robinson losing the headline war - the plaintiffs' bar has noticed

Recap: on September 23, six family-owned trucking companies filed a RICO complaint (here's my previous analysis) against CH Robinson and Total Quality Logistics in the Eastern District of Texas. Among them were Stevens Trucking, Western Flyer Express and Freymiller. The complaint alleges wire fraud, forced labor and a scheme to route freight through chameleon carriers that undercut compliant fleets. Within a week FreightWaves, Land Line, CDLLife and Law360 had all run it and... ... the most quotable line in ...

ePost moves to bigger facility at O'Hare

International shipping and logistics specialist ePost Global has moved to a 104,000 square ft facility in Itasca, near Chicago O'Hare International Airport The new site has nearly three times the previous ePost facility's footprint and, ePost said, the expansion "addresses [its] rapid growth in the region". ePost Global's largest US processing operation for both ecommerce parcels and mail, the expanded facility "strengthens the company's ability to accommodate additional customers, a broader range of shipment profiles and continued growth in international shipping volumes", it said in a statement. The larger footprint also provides greater flexibility to scale operations during peak periods and times of network disruption, it noted. The expansion comes as ePost Global prepares for what it thinks will be its busiest peak season to date. Sustained growth in customers and shipping volumes had pushed the company's previous Chicago-area operation to capacity, creating the need - it said - for a larger, more advanced facility designed to support continued growth. Kelly Martinez, co-president of ePost Global, explained: "Chicago has become our highest-volume US operation, and we reached the point where demand was outgrowing the space. "Coming off a record year, we're on track for another record peak season for ePost Global. This [expansion] gives us the capacity to innovate, scale our operations, and deliver the flexibility and reliability our customers need." Broadening coverage As well as increasing overall handling capacity, the expanded operation in Chicago will allow ePost Global to process a broader range of shipment profiles, including small parcels, poly mailers and larger packages. The additional space and throughput will also provide greater flexibility during seasonal surges and periods of network disruption, when capacity across shipping networks is under the greatest strain. Fabrizio Alvear, co-founder and co-president of ePost Global, observed: "When e-commerce brands and retailers are growing, their shipping partner needs to be ready to grow with them. "We are investing ahead of demand so we can accept more volume without imposing artificial limits when capacity matters most. "This facility gives us room to serve customers through the coming peak season and continue scaling well beyond it." The ePost operation at the new facility combines automated sortation with advanced scanning and tracking, optical character recognition and piece-to-container verification. Together, these capabilities enable the identification of exceptions in real time, improve sort accuracy, reduce repeat scanning and manual handling, and allow more shipments to move directly from induction into the correct outbound container to destination hubs around the world.