Hello everyone, we have a new article. In order not to cause misunderstanding, I deliberately write this article after this wave of craze has passed. The purpose of this article is to objectively analyze the reasons for serious situations such as warehouse explosion at the cargo terminal and the matters we need to pay attention to, but does not mean to provoke disputes. Hope you guys can deal with this rationally. In the future, when you encounter similar situations, you can see more clearly and feel more relieved.
Overview
As we all know, in the past few months, due to the influx of anti-epidemic materials, many cargo stations across the country have been filled with anti-epidemic materials. Coupled with all kinds of charter flights and overtime flights, the staff at cargo stations around the world are really busy. However, at this time, I received news that the warehouse was full, and the goods that had been delivered to the warehouse could not be put into the warehouse at all, and it took several days to queue up. Isn’t this going to kill people? Well, this problem has indeed killed some of the goods. But now we should look more at why this problem occurs. So today, let’s discuss the reasons for the liquidation and how to deal with it.
The warehouse explosion is obviously caused by the fact that there are too many goods in the cargo station, and the efficiency of handling the goods is not high enough. This situation is not unique to the country. Cargo terminals all over the world will likely appear. Today, we will analyze the causes of warehouse explosions in various places.
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First, take Guangzhou as an example. Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport has two international cargo terminals, one is China Southern Airlines Cargo Terminal and the other is No. 1 Cargo Terminal. China Southern Airlines Cargo Terminal mainly handles flights of China Southern Airlines and some foreign airlines. Terminal 1 handles Air China flights as well as a significant portion of other flights. This means that the number of flights that need to be handled by the two cargo terminals is not the same. Then, when there is a situation like the emergence of a large number of anti-epidemic materials, the amount of goods that the two cargo stations need to handle are also different. This is the most important factor affecting the warehouse explosion problem at the cargo station. Some time ago, due to the export of a large number of epidemic prevention materials in China, the warehouse of the cargo station was burst and queued up to enter the warehouse. Due to the large number of flights to be processed, the situation of queuing for warehousing is particularly obvious at No. 1 cargo terminal.
According to data from the official website of Baiyun Airport, in 2019, the airport took off and landed nearly 500,000 flights, and the cargo and mail throughput exceeded 1.9 million tons. (Data source: https://www.gbiac.net/byairport-web/menu/index?urlKey=airport-basic-facts)
The same situation occurs abroad. For example, Nigeria’s Lagos Airport (LOS), he also has two cargo terminals. One is called SACHOL (Skyway Aviation Handling Company Limited) and the other is called NACHO (Nigerian Aviation Handling Company). The latter has a smaller capacity, handles a smaller number of flights, and has fewer employees. Contrary to the former, it is an older freight station with many employees. Because of this, NACHO cannot handle the goods all the year round. Ports are often blocked. Therefore, the capacity of the cargo terminal and the number of flights it handles are definitely a very important factor that affects the efficiency of cargo processing at the cargo terminal. Of course, many people including airlines are now aware of this problem, so some airlines have already transferred directly from NACHO to SACHOL.
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Secondly, the working efficiency and working method of the cargo station will also cause the situation of warehouse explosion. Under normal circumstances, the cargo terminal can handle the cargo volume of daily commercial flights. But for sudden outbreaks, such as anti-epidemic materials some time ago, such as the eve of the annual long holiday. It’s a big test for the freight station. At present, the No. 1 cargo terminal has not yet activated the large security inspection machine, so each shipment can only be passed through the machine one by one. This means that each piece of goods needs to be put on the X-ray machine by hand. When the number of cargo tickets suddenly soars, such efficiency will appear very low. In view of this, cargo terminal No. 1 actually had a limited warehousing time before, and goods could only be warehousing 48 hours before the flight took off. Such a move can prevent the goods from being placed in the cargo station for too long and occupying the space. Of course, this also promotes the utilization of secondary warehouses. Overall, I think it’s still very positive. However, the No. 1 cargo station still has a problem, that is, the three-dimensional shelves are not used. Originally, the three-dimensional shelf is a good solution to the utilization of vertical space. Regarding this issue, I consulted the No. 1 cargo station before, and the answer was that although there are three-dimensional shelves, there is no forklift supporting it, so the three-dimensional shelves still cannot be used. Hahaha, this answer is really… In fact, if the three-dimensional shelves can be used, the space of the cargo station can be greatly improved. Here, there are many reasons why the three-dimensional shelves are not used, and we will not discuss them in depth.
Do you still remember JNB’s liquidation in the last two months? It is because the equipment and personnel of the cargo station could not keep up, and then the volume of cargo suddenly exploded (mainly chartered flights), which then led to the explosion of the warehouse. After the liquidation, I asked some friends, since the liquidation has been liquidated, why does the plane keep flying over? How to pick up the goods? Then my friend told me that the consignee went directly to the bottom of the machine to pick up the goods. Ha ha ha ha. This wave of action is enough. Cross the freight station to pick up the goods by yourself.
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Again, if you don’t have the right tools and methods to manage, it’s also very laborious. Managing a cargo station is actually a science, managing people, managing goods, and managing safety. Each is enough to give a headache. Therefore, many freight stations are now using modern technology to help them manage better. For example, the No. 1 cargo station has surveillance cameras, which can firstly ensure the safety of the cargo station area, and secondly, if the goods cannot be found, you can also use the surveillance cameras to retrieve the video of the goods entering the warehouse, adjust the Come out and see where the goods are. For another example, every time a cargo station does something, there must be a complete and complete record. How to keep so many records? In the past, everything was kept on paper. This takes time, is not easy to save, takes up space when saving, and has poor collaboration ability. In the past two months, the cargo terminal has tried to use online collaborative documents, such as online editing tools such as Tencent Documents, to save and update various records. At the same time, multiple departments and multiple people can edit online at the same time. This has to be said to be a big change. Although it has not been officially implemented on a large scale, it has at least started. No one refuses to use good things, right? The most important thing is that it is free~ I think the way of online documentation will become more and more popular in the future.
Next, let’s take a look at the situations I have experienced when foreign cargo terminals exploded. Yes, liquidation can happen everywhere, and there are many factors that can trigger a liquidation. Let’s take a look one by one.
Weather Reason
It is not uncommon for a position to be liquidated due to weather factors. It’s just that this is an objective reason, so not many customers have very strong opinions. And if the customers themselves live in the destination, they will know the local weather conditions, so they will understand. Although customers who have liquidated their positions due to weather will also have negative emotions, this is always more acceptable than the lack of stock due to other reasons.
Here comes the chestnuts: I have tried to transport the goods to HKT before. Everyone knows that HKT is a small place, mainly because there are more tourists. Therefore, there are not many resources in this place itself, and it has to rely on foreign materials to supplement local resources. HKT freight station is also not big. Therefore, HKT is also prone to liquidation. But that’s not the point. The point is, HKT weather is a tropical monsoon climate, it is a rainy and typhoon place, and the rainy season is from April to September every year. Once, my cargo was stranded in HKT for a long time. I called to ask, and found that the cargo station was flooded, flooded, flooded, and flooded. . . Well, it is also an international airport cargo terminal, but it was actually flooded. During the phone call, I also learned that the facilities at the local cargo depot were not complete enough, and the warehouse was also understaffed. When the volume of goods is large, it is completely impossible to cope with it. In addition, the warehouse will leak… water leakage will seriously affect the safety of the goods. Therefore, especially in typhoon days, HKT’s goods are likely to be delayed. This is a typical case of liquidation due to the influence of weather.
Political Reasons
This is also an objective factor. In the last two years, Qatar and Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other countries in the Middle East broke off diplomatic relations, I believe you still have an impression. When the diplomatic ties were first severed, there were still goods that were transferred to these Middle Eastern countries via DOH. However, after the goods arrive at DOH, the contract is cut off, so what should I do if the goods have already arrived? Of course, I did not follow up on this matter, after all, it is not mine. I believe QR can handle it fine.
Other Reasons
Of course, in addition to the above reasons, there are many other reasons that can cause the warehouse to explode. For example, in order to better supervise foreign exchange, the local government deliberately controls the number of imports and exports. In this way, it is easy to cause a backlog of goods and cause a warehouse explosion. Another example is that there are riots in the local area, which seriously affect the normal trade operations of imports and exports, and so on. Not all of them can be found here.
No matter what the reasons are for liquidation, it is unfavorable to the airlift industry, and even to the entire exit/entry situation. Serious economic losses will be caused. We can foresee the whole situation and understand the reasons for the liquidation. Losses can be minimized as much as possible. I hope this article can help some small partners to plan ahead and do a good job in risk management.
Well, this issue is almost here. See you next time.