Hello everyone. Well…then what I’m going to say this time is that everyone has a problem: irregular transportation.
Every shipment, whether by sea or by air, will go through a period of time when “the goods are not in your hands”. During this time, there are too many things that can happen, and there are many reasons for them. The important thing is, what do we do when things go wrong?
Before starting the lecture, let’s first understand what “irregular transportation” is. As the name implies, irregular transportation is a problem that occurs during transportation under abnormal circumstances. To put it bluntly, it is something that should not have happened, but it has happened. The scientific name for irregular transport is Irregularity – IRR. But irregular shipments occur, which always have to be dealt with. So how to deal with all kinds of irregular transportation correctly? How does it work inside the airline? If we can know how the airlines operate, it can also make us deal with IRR more efficiently. Now let’s discuss the 4 most common IRRs below.
MSCA – Missing Cargo – Missing Cargo
MSCA is probably the worst headache you’ve ever encountered. But headaches are headaches, and problems always have to be solved. First, how did we find out that the cargo was missing? It must have been told to us by the destination customer, saying that 100 pieces are good, but after counting the points, I found out that there are only 98 pieces?
At this time, many friends who have just entered the business will panic. Oops, the customer has complained, what should I do? Friends, no matter what happens, we must not panic. Panic because you don’t know how to deal with it. Even if you don’t see this article, you can ask other colleagues for help. Panic can’t help you. We need to know that when the goods are lost, the investigation method is basically used.
The customer said that they received less goods (Short), so there must be evidence, right? We’re not a scapegoat, we can’t even say a word to our customers. So, what should the evidence here be? It is the proof of receipt of the destination (Cargo Receipt – it may be called differently in different places, but everyone knows what it is). How did you get this proof of receipt? It is the destination freight station. When checking the data of the waybill, I saw that the waybill for this shipment said 100pcs, but the actual points were only 98pcs. Then it will start the search process, first search in the destination warehouse to see if there are 2 pieces in other places, and can’t find them temporarily. Because the warehouse is very large, sometimes one or two items are misplaced. If you find it, it is best to return it to the consignee immediately. If you can’t find it, an irregular shipping bill will be issued, and the short shipment 2pcs will also be displayed on the receipt certificate.
At the same time, if the general destination cargo station finds that it is undercharged, it will notify the local airline and the airline headquarters (by telegram or/and mail), saying that the ticket has been underpaid, and ask for assistance in checking the originating station and transfer station. Record. After the airline headquarters receives the notice, it will forward the notice to the originating station, and the originating station will start a series of inspections to gradually investigate the cause. Eye-poisoning friends may have seen it. Is the airline communication using telegrams? Yes, the logistics industry is a traditional industry, and many of the methods used are also very traditional. In the past, booking was still done by fax. How can there be online booking now, and mail booking is so convenient. However, telegraphing can now be done on a computer without actually having a telegraph machine in front of you to type. By the way, in the event of an irregular shipment, the header on the telegram will be IRR.
First, the originating station will check whether the number of pieces of goods is correct at the time of delivery, and then check whether the number of pieces of the goods in the ticket is correct on the cardboard. Because sometimes, the customer is also a big head of shrimp, obviously there are three pieces of goods, but the three pieces of goods are packaged into one. But bkd still writes 100pcs. Of course, the chances of this happening are relatively small, because if the number of pieces is wrong when receiving and shipping, it will be found immediately, unless it is really the cargo station that is also careless and wrong.
The safest way is to check the weight in addition to the number of pieces. Why check the weight? As I said just now, the airline company needs to review the cardboard. If the number of pieces displayed on the cardboard is complete, it is also necessary to check the weight of the ULD board loaded with this ticket. When the board was installed at the station, it was already missing. At this point, it can be basically determined that the situation of missing goods occurred at the originating station, and then thoroughly check the originating warehouse. First, check the warehousing paper. When receiving and shipping, each shipment has a warehousing paper, which records the detailed information of the goods, including the number of pieces and weight. If the number of pieces is correct when entering the warehouse and the number of pieces is not correct when loading the board, it is obvious that the few pieces of goods are still in the cargo station. Now that you have entered the cargo terminal, it will be much easier to handle, because the cargo does not have long legs and will not run away on its own, so you only need to check the warehouse. If necessary, the monitoring can be adjusted. It is emphasized here again that the wrong number of pieces at the receiving and shipping point will not happen often, because this is a serious mistake, and normal people cannot do it, and everyone does not need to push everything to the cargo station. Besides, the cargo terminal area belongs to the customs supervision area, and there are CCTVs everywhere. If you want to fish in troubled waters, it is a criminal offense.
The scanned doc is the warehousing delivery proof from the cargo terminal of Guangzhou Baiyun Airport. This doc looks similar to almost all the terminals.
If there is none of the above, it means that the shortage of goods is likely not to happen at the originating station, so where does it happen? We will continue to investigate. At this time, the originating station will feedback the actual situation to the transit station and the headquarters, and clearly inform that the missing goods are not at the originating station, and the headquarters needs to assist in launching WWT – Word Wide Tracing. Of course, the initiative to find goods is not in the originating station now. Stand up. What the departure station can do now is to keep urging the headquarters to ask about the progress. Therefore, at this stage, it is also very difficult for the airline company. On the one hand, it is closely pursued by the agent, and on the other hand, the goods have not been found. It’s just like a year.
At this time, the headquarters will send an email to tell all the outstations that there is such a tracking number, and everyone will see if there is any over-received goods. Why send it to other unrelated sites? We know that if the goods are mixed, then at the headquarters it is necessary to dismantle the board and load the goods on the corresponding second-way flight. So, in the process of dismantling and reinstalling the machine, will there be a few pieces of goods that are accidentally misplaced? For example, this ticket originally went to FRA and should be loaded on PMCxxx, but it was next to the plane going to FRA, and at the same time it was loaded on the ULD of the flight going to AMS. Then, by accident, I took the wrong cargo and loaded the cargo destined for FRA onto the AMS plane. Then this product will appear in AMS… Although this sounds like a very funny question, the actual situation is that it will happen that the board assembler loads so many boards every day and occasionally overlooks and misreads. So that’s why WWT started.
So what if you are really unlucky and can’t find it anywhere? Then we can only file a claim. There is time to make a claim, I remember that IATA has a statute of limitations of 21 days for claims for delayed delivery (including delays due to no goods found). However, I want to emphasize one point here. I wanted to find a description of this on the TACT Rule, but I couldn’t find it for the time being. I’m not sure if IATA has written this regulation yet. However, the relevant rules are found in the 1999 “Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air” – Article 31 (Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air (Montreal, 28 May 1999)).
Quotes from “Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air”. Source from: https://www.jus.uio.no/lm/air.carriage.unification.convention.montreal.1999
And this claim letter requires an official email, including all relevant information such as MAWB, HAWB, PL, CI, Cargo Receipt, etc. Anyway, the information to prove the value of the shipment and the data to prove that the goods were underpaid are attached. Then, just wait for the airline’s approval.
Regarding claims, in fact, IATA has very clear regulations. If you do not buy insurance, then each shipment will only be compensated for a fixed amount, not according to the value of the goods. The insurance mentioned here is the airline’s insurance. Airlines have a very complicated calculation method, which is probably the weight of the cargo multiplied by the SDR (Special Drawing Rate), and the SDR will change according to the exchange rate or something. I forgot how to calculate it…cough, because it is rarely used. More practice is to buy commercial insurance for goods, that is, to buy transportation insurance from insurance companies in the market. After underwriting, as long as the documents are complete, once there is a problem within the coverage of the insurance contract, you can claim.
FDCA – Found Cargo – Found Cargo
This is easier to understand, it is the literal meaning, the goods have been found. Corresponds to the missing goods above. If there is lost goods, there will be found goods. For example, if an outer station receives a ticket or a piece of goods that does not belong to the station head, it will send telegrams and emails to the headquarters, and the headquarters will send information to all other outer stations. If a station finds that the ticket belongs to itself, it will claim it, and then the airline will consult the originating station, whether it needs to be returned the same way or sent directly to the destination or what. If it is returned the same way, then there is no additional charge for air freight, but the shipper is responsible for customs clearance after returning to the originating station. Of course, it is usually delivered directly to the destination.
At this time, it should be noted that some destinations cannot be cleared in batches. If after the first batch arrives, it is found that there are few goods, but the goods are picked up again, then even if the lost goods are sent to the destination, they will not be able to clear customs. Because when picking up the goods, it is equivalent to acknowledging that the whole shipment is picked up, and then the goods are the completion of the transportation agreement. If you want to pick up the whole shipment, you have to wait for all the goods to arrive before they can be cleared out.
There are also some destinations that cannot be arrived in batches, that is to say, if the goods are missing, it is necessary to wait for the entire shipment to arrive at the transit station before it can be shipped to the destination at one time.
The above two special cases must be remembered by friends. Otherwise, there may be very troublesome consequences.
MSAW – Missing Air Way Bill – Missing Waybill
Lost waybill is another common irregular shipment. We only discuss the handling of missing MAWB now. For the neutral bill of lading, if it is found that the MAWB is lost, the first thing to do is to notify the originating station and ask the originating station to issue a certificate saying that the master bill of this shipment has been lost. Then a new neutral bill of lading can be passed randomly on the next flight. Of course, before receiving a new bill of lading, it is possible that the goods will be held at the transfer station, because some destinations require the goods and the bill of lading to arrive together. And without a bill of lading it will indeed cause trouble for the transfer station. At this time, if the first flight is daily, the waybill will arrive the next day.
If it is an airline waybill, it will be a little more troublesome. The originating station needs to make a statement to inform the transfer station and the headquarters that the original order is lost, and then send a copy of the waybill to the headquarters and the transfer station, or some places also accept the electronic version, Apply for a sub-substitute. This action must be done by the airline company, because only the airline company has the right to explain that a certain waybill belongs to a certain agent and belongs to a certain ticket.
It is less common for a waybill to go to the wrong destination, but it can happen. It is rare because usually all the documents of a flight are placed in a document bag (Pouch) and handed over directly to the captain by the cargo terminal. The reason for this is that the document bag will be opened at the transfer station, and different waybills will be distributed according to the destination. This is done by hand. Humans can make mistakes. If it is really wrong, the IRR to be described below may occur.
FDAW – Found Air Way Bill – Found Air Way Bill
It is also a kind of irregular transportation to find the waybill, because the waybill that does not belong to this station is found in the outer station. Therefore, it is similar to the procedure of finding the goods, that is, it is just re-shipped to the destination. I won’t go into details here.
Write at the end
In fact, in addition to the above four most common IRRs, there are many different IRRs, such as damaged goods, wrong shipments, etc. A principle can be followed for each situation: first check the station head with the problem, if you can’t find it, look for the station head one by one from the origin. Even launch WWT. If it doesn’t work, file a claim.
Hope this article can help you guys. See you next time.