“As shippers become more and more demanding when it comes to the status update of their air cargo shipments, freight forwarding companies need to upgrade their tracking capabilities to get a leg up on competitors. Roberto Trezzi, IT Manager at VECTOR SpA, an international freight forwarder based in Northern Italy, explains why the company chose StarTracking, the airport-to-airport tracking solution developed by CARGO START.”
Q. As the head of IT at VECTOR, you were the decision maker for the implementation of StarTracking as your airport-to-airport tracking solution. What was the competitive edge over other systems you evaluated?
A. Essentially, StarTracking offers superior data quality and transparency and sophisticated tracking options and yet it is incredibly user friendly and simple. Right after the first demo, it was clear that StarTracking was engineered around the needs of medium-sized forwarders like VECTOR.We all know that air freight moves at very fast speed and that as a forwarder you need to keep the shipper up-to-date about their shipment status almost in real-time. And the shipper is becoming more and more demanding.
Until now, we were forced to visit every carrier’s website to keep up-to-date. With StarTracking, we can have an overview of the status of ALL our shipments in one, single platform, which really saves a lot of time.
Q. In which other way does ST improve your operational efficiencies?
A. One of the most interesting features is definitely the highly customizable notification engine – you can really select the information you need and get real-time push e-mail alerts.
Besides avoiding over-alerting and getting your e-mail box overloaded, it is a real asset in terms of transparency which also allows to react promptly in case of irregularity.
And irregularities, if not detected on time, can really make a difference, especially for a company with a strong focus on vertical industries like fashion and pharma and on special cargo shipments such as artworks, vintage cars and hazardous materials.
A few months back we were entrusted a shipment of ice axes for a Himalaya expedition. The shipment was disrupted in transit due to a delay of a transfer flight which could not be identified with our previous tracking system, and the expedition had to be cancelled.
Q. Now make a wish: as you know, with a full API integration with your TMS, the system can be further optimized.
A. The advantage of being an early adopter, is that the system can be really fine-tuned according to our feedback! My first wish would be mobile-based traceability; push alerts on the smartphone would really save time in responding to the agents’ requests.
In addition, if we further integrate ST in our TMS, we can envisage even a higher quality of data, because the system could cross-filter our own data and compare the carrier’s route map with ours, which would allow to pre-alert our customers. However, the current option to compare the carriers’ Planned with the Actual shipment route map is a real plus. No other tracking system offers that.
Q. In other words, do you wish to go in the direction of a door-to-door tracking solution?
A. That’s not just my wish, but the wish of the industry as a whole. Air cargo is more and more driven by eCommerce and shippers are becoming more and more like B2C consumers.
Just like the end-users, they want to be able to quickly log-in and access pricing, bookings, and manage entire shipments, including tracking all in one intuitive and easy-to-use dashboard.
Q. What do you consider to be the main challenge to accomplish this vision?
A. Unfortunately the general level of digitalization is still quite poor; for example, the adoption of a new standard like Cargo XML would facilitate the process by allowing the transmission of the documents attached to the virtual pouch. But very few companies are ready for it.
At VECTOR we are investing a lot in digital transformation: we believe it is the only way to go. We are ready “to climb the Himalaya” actually, but too many of our stakeholders are still missing the “ice axes”, and not all of them can rely on the expertise of a partner like CARGO START to guide them through the journey.
More information about Vector SpA at vectorspa.it
More information about StarTracking on the dedicated website startracking.aero
Contact the Cargo Start team for a free consultancy and to request a demo.