After reading the following survey, post your observation of the survey\'s resul

Question

After reading the following survey, post your observation of the survey's results for discussion. (Example - what shocked, surprised or didn't surprise you when it comes to airfreight shipper responses?)

Survey:
When designing the survey, we chose to make it as short as possible to encourage a maximum of shippers to participate and share their views. Therefore, we decided not to ask questions on the size of the company, type of goods they are transporting, their annual spending for transportation services.
We also chose not to ask them for their contact details, country and company name. So we can’t do any breakdown of the collected data by country or business type. However, 55% of the respondents voluntarily provided us with their contact details for further follow-up.
Companies in North America, Europe, Middle East and Asia took the survey. For next year’s survey, extra engagement efforts might need to be undertaken to reach out to companies based in BRIC countries.
Participants of the survey were asked to identify what modes of transport they use. 94% of respondents declared using air cargo. The report is based on the answers given by those 316 respondents.
66% of those air cargo customers declared they use other modes of transport: ocean (55%), road (54%) and rail (20%). Having multimodal customers taking the survey makes was very important, especially for the questions related to air cargo’s value proposition, competitiveness and ability to innovate compared to the other modes of transport.
Areas which have been highlighted as disadvantageous are the high cost for shipping goods by air, the lack of transparency (for price, process of transport and the responsibility) and the environmental footprint. We opened our survey questionnaire to free text comments to capture reasons of dis-satisfaction and suggestions for improvement. Their answers were enlightening: air cargo is perceived by its customers as old-fashioned, complex and inefficient. Shippers complained about the poor customer service offered and the lack of real-time information available that overall weakens air cargo’s value proposition. Increased value proposition.
Shippers responding to the questionnaire highlighted the need for greater competitiveness for air transportation. They tend to think that air cargo is offering “low value for money”: high costs not compensated by high enough customer service and quality. This results in a relatively poor customer satisfaction level. Shippers explained in the survey that they would like to see quality improvements from their air cargo suppliers (reduction of damaged goods and bumped cargo, delays, flight changes, etc.) in order to ensure an increased level of customer service.
“Reduce the costs while being able to provide more reliable service and propose "low-cost" solution for the freight also.”
“Long lead times compared to cost”
We also asked multimodal shippers how they perceived air cargo in terms of competitiveness compared to the other modes of transport they are using. 37% of them see air cargo as less competitive than the other modes of transport.
The air cargo industry needs to improve the service offered to shippers through a more transparent environment where prices and more specifically extra charges (security, fuel surcharges) are clearly indicated.
“Show transparency in rates which includes the matrix of the fuel surcharges.”
Transparency is not only about prices, but also about quality of service. Shippers highlighted the need to invest in tracking capabilities to get real-time information and accurate data about the transportation process. This is particularly important for time sensitive, vulnerable and valuable goods.
“We need transparency with better tracking and tracing of cargo and shorter communication links.”
“Possibility for tracing shipment from exporter to final destination will be ideal and better EDI feed to assist it.”
“When something goes wrong, it takes time to get the information.”
Shippers believe also that investing in better track & trace capabilities will help air cargo industry to provide them with accurate carbon footprint reports. Optimized processes
Decreasing transit times and increasing handling performances were raised by respondents of the questionnaire. Shippers expect fewer damaged goods during transportation and handling and a smoother overall end to end process.
“Shorter transit time, less damage of cargo shipments and clear communications will be great.”
“Cut delays in transit time.”
“Quicker ground handling will be able to shorter lead times. Trucks are waiting too long to unload air cargo or receive cargo after arrival of aircraft. Reduce handling times from freight acceptance to flight departure and from flight arrival to making available for collection.”
“Air cargo represents less than 0.5% of our shipments but around 2% of time and effort spent.”
“Too much repetitive data entry for necessary documentation.”
“It's a pain to pick up and drop off cargo.”
The air cargo industry cannot afford to be complacent! Air cargo must transform itself into a lean, adaptive and innovative industry centered on increasingly sophisticated customer demands.
To address the competitive pressures facing air cargo, the industry challenged itself in 2014 to meet an important objective by 2020: seeking to optimize the air cargo supply chain for every commodity type transported by air to provide shippers with greater transparency, reliability and predictability.
With the new Cargo Transformation program, IATA is committed to lead and support the air cargo industry in its transformation process by driving innovation, making changes happen, uniting and inspiring people.

Explanation / Answer

This survey result indicate about what are the problem faced by the shippers in the air cargo, ocean and road cargo while transporting their goods one place to another, post reading made me a shock because today universe going very fast with high technology yet shippers facing lot of issues from air cargo providers not giving proper customer service, that air cargo operating team not working with inefficient showing lack to giving the appropriate information for their customers, in further shippers also worried about the air cargo getting more money but giving low value of support to them and shippers are seek more facilities from air cargo such as need efficient tracking details, transit time should be reduce goods damaged needs to reduced and few more.   Shipper believe this survey will be useful for them to getting quality of service and handling improvements from air cargo.

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