With a fleet of more than 90,000 pallets and containers, Jettainer is one of the world’s largest providers of ULD management. The company claims to be responsible for about 12% of the global ULD fleet across the entire aviation industry. That leaves a high growth potential in this market, as most of the airlines are still managing their ULDs in-house. Because the air cargo cost pressure is high and the growth stagnating, the ULD management expert sees promising opportunities in freight and baggage containers for passenger airlines.
In a press briefing as a side event of the 33rd International Supply Chain Conference in Berlin, Jettainer told CargoForwarder Global about their ambitious plans for the coming years. “We have
set ourselves ambitious yet realistic growth targets for 2020. And the current market developments prove our decisions right,” said Carsten Hernig, Managing Director of Jettainer GmbH. The
company has recently welcomed two new customers, and another airline is soon to be launched.
Digital containers will soon become reality
Many topics found mention at the press briefing. Among them was Jettainer’s new cooperation with Lufthansa Industry Solutions, which has a great deal of experience with tracking technologies, and
aims to create an intelligent container. In former projects, Lufthansa Industry Solution has already worked on an ocean freight container with the ability to control the degree of ripeness of
bananas. “We are talking about the future of pallets and containers, a transparent supply chain with real-time tracking,” said Martin Kraemer, Head of Marketing and PR at Jettainer. Tracking
technology could enable load devices to be located at any time around the globe, and even to measure temperature changes, shocks and other environmental factors independently. This increased
level of transparency would help to figure out when and how damage of a ULD was caused. “Moreover, the digital container is paving the way for new business models like car-to-go,” said Kraemer.
Jettainer was placed second at BVL’s prestigious awards ceremony (from l > r): Ralf Struckmeier, Vice President Logistics of Lufthansa Industry Solutions, Thomas Wimmer, Chairman Executive Board of BVL, Carsten Hernig / Martin Kraemer, Jettainer GmbH, Pieter Huyghens, Project Head Air Cargo Handling of Brussels Airlines
Cost reduction through damage prevention
Alongside the new generation of containers, which will in future accelerate maintenance and control procedures, Jettainer also wants to motivate handling agents to use the units with greater
care. For this reason, the Lufthansa Cargo sister company has already started a project to create awareness of how to properly treat ULDs. This makes sense, since 80% of ULD management costs are
generated by damages due to incorrect handling. “We are talking about annual costs amounting to 300 million US dollars. In addition to the maintenance costs, safety risks are arising out of
damaged containers. It is an important issue for us to ensure that all containers are in best condition,” said Hernig.
The so-called JettCare programme involves training for several thousand ground handling staff and qualifies them as “ULD-X-Perts”. Furthermore, Jettainer is also gaining help from its mascot
JettJack. Containers are being decorated with stickers showing a cartoon-style container saying, “Please treat me with care. I am sensitive.”
Jettainer takes second place at German Logistics Award
Also at the Supply Chain Conference, Jettainer was placed second at the German Logistics Award ceremony which was held last Thursday at the event.
The German Logistics Association (BVL) is the organizer of the award and the second pace went to Jettainer for what the jury termed as the company’s commitment in the field of utilizing big data,
artificial intelligence and expert systems.
Prof. Thomas Wimmer, Chairman of the Executive Board of the BVL commented that “the jury especially commended the complexity management, the cooperation of science and economy and the
human-machine.interaction in Jettainer’s project.”
John Mc Donagh
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