With immediate effect Leslie Hart will join the business development team of Vertis Aviation, the Switzerland-headquartered, Argus-Certified, charter specialist. Based in Johannesburg, and with a focus on Africa, Leslie is responsible for identifying new markets of opportunity, growing the charter market for aircraft currently within the Vertis portfolio, as well as strengthening the suite of marketed aircraft through the Vertis Charter Management Program.
Existing and new African partners will benefit from having an additional local presence as Hart’s appointment complements the success of Mark Abbot in Africa, as they continue to develop the company’s continental presence. Hart’s initial focus will be on countries where increased economic, social and political stability is enabling economic growth, particularly in east, central and west Africa. The resulting increase in high-net-worth-individuals supports the need for business aviation and Hart anticipates this will bring new customers to the sector.
“Growth is predominantly driven by commodity prices on the whole in Africa as the oil, gas, gold, and minerals sectors need business aviation to thrive. In addition, industries such as construction, telecoms and general infrastructure development are driving demand. There is huge potential across the continent, and we see a lot of opportunity for the Vertis business model to support the increased needs,” said Hart. “It is a huge task to manage business development across the continent, but one that I’m looking forward to taking on.”
Hart’s background in the multinational consumer electronics business saw him opening subsidiaries and brands across Africa as well as creating distribution channels into, and within, Africa. The last three years saw him dedicated to charter aircraft management. As he steps into his role at Vertis his international and continental skill-set position him well to support the company’s further growth in Africa.
“It seems that Africa is one of the last continents where there is still massive potential for investment from local and international companies. Confidence has grown as economies have strengthened. Commercial airline travel still has many limitations and business aviation is often the only means of travel between point to point destinations. We know that Leslie’s experience with international business, combined with his local knowledge in the air charter field, adds massive value to our team. We’re excited about the possibilities,” said Jeffrey Emmenis, CEO, Vertis Aviation.
Jet Support Services, Inc. (JSSI), the leading independent provider of maintenance support and financial services to the aviation industry, has announced that Ash Reddy has been appointed to the new role of vice president, global strategy and corporate development.
Reddy will be responsible for identifying, developing and executing organic and inorganic strategic initiatives globally for all JSSI business units. The new role includes long-range strategic planning, driving synergies across the organization and linking business trends to enterprise strategies and opportunities.
“It gives me great pleasure to welcome Ash to our team. His strong background in corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and new business development will support him well in this new role. As we continue to grow and expand the business, our ability to integrate and develop strategic opportunities becomes increasingly important. I am confident that Ash will be very successful in this new leadership role to help us further expand our products and services,” commented Neil W. Book, president and CEO for JSSI.
Reddy was most recently with Mars, Incorporated, where he was responsible for leading the global strategy development process and a variety of growth initiatives for the company’s confectionery business, based in Chicago. An Illinois Wesleyan University graduate with a bachelor’s degree in economics, Reddy also holds a master’s in finance from the University of Notre Dame. Prior to his role at Mars, Reddy spent time at Accenture within their corporate development team and was tasked with driving the firm’s acquisition activity. He began his career in the valuation services group at Grant Thornton LLP.
“My experience and professional interests align well with JSSI objectives as we enter into this next phase of growth. The unique position of JSSI in the business aviation industry, along with the caliber of our team, have really impressed me and I know we are just scratching the surface,” said Reddy. “I am looking forward to playing a role in helping elevate our already strong brand by accelerating the company’s strategic agenda, while maintaining our customer-centric focus. I could not be more excited by the opportunity.”
John Stubbings has succeeded Mark Bromley as the elected chair of the British International Freight Association (BIFA), with Rachel Morley being elected vice-chair.
Stubbings has been associated with BIFA for years and the group director and company secretary of Woodland Group is also chair of BIFA’s Legal and Insurance Policy Group.
Morley, the general manager for operations at Spatial Global was appointed a director of BIFA in 2017 and chairs the trade association’s Midlands region.
Charles Hogg, commercial director of Unsworth Global Logistics has joined the board of BIFA as a director.
He is chair of BIFA’s Maritime, Road and Rail Policy Group, and replaces Andrew Melton of Ligentia, who has stepped down after 14 years of service on the board.
Robert Keen, director general of BIFA says: “In welcoming John and Rachel into their new positions, I wish to express my appreciation for the contribution made by Mark Bromley over the past few years; and by Andrew Melton over the last 14 years. I am also pleased that Sir Peter has agreed to continue in office.”
Sir Peter Bottomley remains BIFA president.
Bosco Dsouza has been appointed Account Manager, Melbourne, by Virgin Atlantic Cargo as the airline looks to build on the strong growth of its Australia cargo business in the last year.
Bosco joins the airline from Worldwide GSA for Qatar Airways Cargo and brings over 20 years’ experience in the cargo industry both locally and internationally having also worked for Qatar Airways in India as well as spending six years in freight sales with FedEx and, earlier in his career, working for dnata in Dubai and Saudi Customs.
In his new post, Bosco reports to Phillippa (Pip) Palmer, Manager, Regional Sales – Australia & New Zealand at Virgin Atlantic Cargo.
Virgin Atlantic achieved significant tonnage and volume growth in Australia in 2018, supporting its longstanding long-haul cargo sales and management agreement with Virgin Australia. Tonnage rose 51% year-on-year and revenues climbed 58% as customers welcomed the expansion of Virgin Australia’s international presence and the opportunity to connect seamlessly with Virgin Atlantic’s network over both Los Angeles and Hong Kong from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
“Bosco is a great addition to our team in Australia and will play an important role in helping us build on the growth we delivered last year. Our ability to connect customers in Melbourne with Hong Kong and Los Angeles through our partnership with Virgin Australia, as well as offering onward connections to the rest of the Virgin Atlantic network, continues to give us a strong advantage,” said Pip Palmer.
In 2018, growth in Australia contributed to Virgin Atlantic Cargo’s best overall revenue performance in five years and its highest freight and courier volumes since 2010.
Cargo iQ has announced a change in leadership of its membership Board with representatives from Emirates SkyCargo and Kuehne + Nagel.
Henrik Ambak, Senior Vice President of Cargo Operations Worldwide at Emirates SkyCargo, has been appointed Chair of Cargo iQ’s Board.
Kerstin Strauss, Vice President and Head of Global Air Logistics Operations at Kuehne + Nagel, will now occupy Ambak’s former position of Vice-Chair of the Board.
“The knowledge and experience of both Henrik and Kerstin will prove to be incredibly valuable to our organisation,” said Ariaen Zimmerman, Executive Director at Cargo iQ.
“Cargo iQ membership continues to develop as the cargo industry looks to streamline and improve efficiencies and our new Chair and Vice-Chair will be essential in advising us in the coming year.”
Ambak started his career in freight forwarding before moving to management roles in airport and cargo handling. He has occupied his current role at Emirates SkyCargo since 2014, responsible for service delivery management, including the management of the two SkyCargo terminals in Dubai.
Ambak also oversees standards, procedures, and compliance efforts to ensure the safety and security of Emirates SkyCargo’s service, as well as systems.
“The strength of Cargo iQ is the use of its Master Operating Plan (MOP) as the practical tool in the daily planning and execution of service delivery across the globe facilitating forwarders, airlines, and handlers,” said Ambak.
“Cargo iQ has, in reality, only just started as the rapid development of specialized cargo services and the fast spread of disruptive technologies screams for operational facilitation frameworks to serve our clients better and quicker.”
Strauss has built her career at Kuehne + Nagel, rising through the ranks since she started as an apprentice in 1994. She has worked across both sea and air freight, and headed up strategic customer development in pharma and healthcare prior to taking up her current role in air logistics in 2017.
“Kuehne + Nagel, as one of the founding members of Cargo iQ, remains highly committed to the principles and strategic objectives of this air cargo interest group, driving industry standards, data quality and transparency,” said Strauss.
FarEye has won a deal to work with Emirates Post, one of the largest post and parcel service providers in GCC, and Landmark Group, the largest retailer of the region.
This development comes at a time when supply chain and logistics organizations in the GCC are looking for ways to deliver on changing customer expectations, ensure rapid scalability, locate addresses accurately and gain competitive advantage.
As a part of the deal, FarEye will implement an intelligent delivery platform to achieve on-time deliveries at a reduced cost.
It will be implementing data-driven routing engine to increase deliveries per hour and provide a delightful and engaging experience to the customers by empowering them to live track their shipments.
The growing ecommerce ecosystem in the region will now drive retailers and logistics organizations to provide seamless, faster and flexible delivery experience.
“The supply chain and logistics challenges of GCC are unique,” says Gautam Kumar, COO, FarEye.
“The sudden need to scale during particular festivals, inaccurate addresses, changing cross-border regulation requirements among others often becomes a roadblock when it comes to ensuring seamless execution of supply chain and logistics.”
“We are thrilled to work with the largest postal and retail players in the region and look forward to deliver exceptional levels of operational efficiencies and delightful customer experience,” he added. “We are scaling our team in the region and seeing tremendous potential here.”
In the world of post and parcel, it is imperative to be customer centric, but at the same time, keeping a check on costs is equally important, adds Kushal Nahata, CEO, FarEye.
“Global logistics spending is set to soar to $10.6-trillion by 2020, with transportation accounting for the majority at 70 percent,” he says. “Shippers are losing a lot of time, money and inventory due to unpredicted freight movement.”
“We are constantly working towards empowering global leaders with predictive visibility and operational intelligence to achieve on-time deliveries at a reduced cost,” he added.
Traxens, and A.P. Moller – Maersk, have announced that Maersk will be joining CMA CGM and MSC as a key shareholder and customer of Traxens.
Founded in 2012, Traxens has been developing unique solutions for the cargo logistics arena and has created an innovative container monitoring and coordination solution. CMA CGM first invested in the startup in 2012 and was later joined in 2016 by MSC.
The agreement will see Maersk invest capital in Traxens, in which it will have similar shareholder rights as CMA CGM and MSC. Maersk also commits to order up to 50,000 Traxens devices, a similar order to those placed earlier by CMA CGM and MSC.
Traxens can now further focus on strengthening its solution and drive interoperability based on non-proprietary technologies and open standards. The development of Traxens as an open industry solution will benefit the strategic ambition of digitizing the container shipping industry.
Ingrid Uppelschoten Snelderwaard, vice president, Head of Equipment, A.P. Moller – Maersk, said: “Creating visibility into the condition and location of containerized cargo is bringing Maersk’s strategy to offer digital end-to-end solutions to life. Having pioneered IoT-technology in our reefer fleet, we are excited to join Traxens and collaborate on the huge potential within connected containers.”
Now counting among its customers and shareholders three of the world’s leading shipping lines, operating nearly half the global container fleet, Traxens offers the entire logistics ecosystem an interoperable smart container solution. This confirms that the digitization of the supply chain via the “smart container” is underway.
Traxens’ solution addresses key challenges in the shipping industry faced by both vessel owners and cargo owners. With the powerful combination of telematics and smart data processing, vessel owners can control costs and develop more agile business problem solving, while cargo owners can easily keep track of their containers, bringing improved business processes and decision-making capabilities.
Reduced operational costs, improved supply chain efficiency, enhanced security and the opportunity to extend offerings to customers are amongst the key benefits gained through Traxens’ smart solutions. The whole shipping ecosystem, including ports, freight forwarders, insurance and financial institutions, can also benefit from the value-added data gathered by Traxens’ cutting-edge technology.
Bosch is entering the market for mobile fuel cells and paving the way for the breakthrough of this technology in trucks and cars.
One crucial component is the stack. As the core of the fuel cell, it converts hydrogen into electrical energy and Bosch has formed an alliance with Powercell Sweden AB to further improve and manufacture these stacks.
Under the agreement, the two companies will work jointly to make the polymer-electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell ready for production.
Bosch will then manufacture this technology under license for the global automotive market. The stack will complement the Bosch portfolio of fuel-cell components, and is to be launched in 2022 at the latest.
As much as 20 percent of all electric vehicles worldwide will be powered by fuel cells by 2030, according to research by Bosch.
“In the fuel-cell domain, Bosch already has a strong hand, and the alliance with Powercell makes it even stronger,” says Dr. Stefan Hartung, member of the Bosch board of management and chairman of the Mobility Solutions business sector. “Commercialising technology is one of our strengths. We are now going to take on this task with determination and develop this market.”
Once they have become established in trucks, Bosch fuel-cell powertrains will then increasingly find their way into passenger cars. But for this to happen, the cost of fuel-cell systems needs to be progressively reduced.
The biggest cost item is the stack. It accounts for nearly two-thirds of the total cost of a fuel-cell system. “Through commercialization and widespread marketing of this technology, Bosch will achieve economies of scale and push down costs,” Hartung says.
In the fuel cell (or fuel-cell stack as an assembly of such cells is called) the hydrogen reacts with oxygen. The end result – apart from water as a by-product – is electrical energy.
This can be used either to recharge a battery in the vehicle or to directly power the electric motor. By flexibly combining two or more stacks, the power requirements of all kinds of vehicles can be covered, from passenger cars to heavy trucks.
Bosch has been working with the British specialist Ceres Power to further improve solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFC) technology for applications such as distributed power supplies to factories and computing centres. The idea behind the technology is to have small power stations set up throughout cities, as well as in industrial areas.
Because these standardized plants are highly flexible, they will be able to cover peak demand better than conventional plants. The aim is for one SOFC module to generate 10 kilowatts of electrical power. Where more electricity is needed, any number of modules with the same output can simply be interconnected.
CHAMP Cargosystems, in accordance with Japan Customs new border management regulations, is now offering Advance Cargo Information (ACI) filing to Japan Customs via its customs compliance solution, Traxon Global Customs. CHAMP has already signed 15 carriers for its ACI service to Japan Customs.
The solution enables all airlines or their ground handlers to send Master Air Waybill (FWB), House Manifest (FHL) and Flight Manifest (FFM) information to Customs according to the requirements. This data must now be submitted for inbound, transit and FROB – shipments to the State of Japan as of March 2019.
“With a quick turnaround, CHAMP was pleased to make our clients compliant with this new regulation on time,” says Nicholas Xenocostas, VP of Commercial & Customer Engagement at CHAMP Cargosystems. “TGC services currently cover over 55 customs authorities worldwide and we remain committed to evolving our compliance solutions in line with market and country developments.”
Used today by over 110+ airlines and ground handlers, TGC currently covers electronic filing requirements in 59 countries worldwide for Advance Electronic Customs Information covering import, export, transshipment and transit regulations for air cargo.
As ‘on demand’ services expand into more industries and market places, Trukkin is leading the way in digital logistics solutions for long-haul trucking.
Launched in 2017, Trukkin is a techno-logistics firm based in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates operating throughout the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region and beyond. The company works to innovate and simplify logistics and land transportation.
Trukkin has raised over $3.5 million in the recent funding round, which included marquee investors from the AL-Namlah Family Group, the Al-Madi Family Group, and the Abanumay Family Group.
Batic Investments and Logistics, a publicly listed company on Tadawul, remains as one of the key investors in the start-up.
“Trukkin’s vision, operational efficiency, capital utilisation, and sound business model drove us to partner with them in the region over other competitors. Trukkin knows the pulse on the ground,” said Mohamed Al-Namlah, managing director of Amnest Group.
By adding the new capital to the company, Trukkin will be able to significantly scale their services across the GCC region.
The company has shipped to over 200 locations in the Middle East. In Saudi Arabia alone, Trukkin has completed over 10,000 long-haul, business-to-business truck movements.
That is a significant accomplishment given that the country represents nearly 50% of the overall GCC market opportunity.
Investor Al-Madi explained that they had been following the sector for months and were impressed with what Trukkin has been able to achieve.
“Their team is very focused on the ground and has shown their operational prowess. We believe we can further add significant capabilities to Trukkin with our investment,” Al-Madi said.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer Janardan Dalmia explained how their model works. “Trukkin operates on an ‘asset-light’ model, meaning it doesn’t own the trucks. Our focus on overall service lets us improve both the customer and transporter experience and also increase asset utilisation and reduce inefficiencies.”
Trukkin serves a wide range of customers. Through its app and online marketplace, the company brings together shippers who need more transparency and easier access to trucks with truckers who need better access to demand and higher fleet utilization. Their client base ranges from businesses who order close to 100 trucks a day to ones with smaller needs who order as few as three trucks a month.
Trukkin is fully aligned with the Saudi Vision 2030 plan to diversify the country’s infrastructure, with a specific focus on the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program (NIDLP). The NIDLP is working to make Saudi Arabia a “leading industrial powerhouse and a global logistics hub.”
CEO Dalmia says the company’s aggressive growth strategy fully supports the vision.
“Trukkin is building up its marketplace to connect thousands of mostly independent truckers. The long-haul land transport market is highly fragmented and disorganized, and our aim is to institutionalize and professionalize this business,” Dalmia explained.
Trukkin is one of several start-ups gaining global recognition in the new industry.
In 2018, a Wall Street Journal headline noted that China’s Truck Alliance, a truck hailing company, was on course for a $10 billion valuation.
Technology has made the world smaller and faster.Real time communication with people from all over the world at different time zones through phones and gadgets
