The Pharma Gateway Amsterdam (PGA) community has gone from strength to strength, welcoming new members and launching new initiatives, since it was formed just under two years ago.
PGA aims to provide a transparent and qualified pharma handling process, which can be monitored and includes 14 members, representing forwarders, ground handlers, hauliers, and airlines, who benefit from cooperative and competitive knowledge sharing.
In June 2017, AirBridgeCargo Airlines (ABC) became the second carrier to become a PGA member, joining Air France-KLM-Martinair Cargo, CyberFreight Pharma Logistics, Yusen Logistics Benelux, GEFCO Forwarding Netherlands, VCK Logistics Airfreight, SGS, Swissport Cargo Services, dnata, Worldwide Flight Services (WFS), Nouwens Transport Breda, De Jong Special Services, Jan de Rijk Logistics, and DJ Middelkoop.
“We see high potential for Schiphol to become one of our main airports for pharma flows and an initiative like PGA is considered to be of great value,” said Henk-Jan van Keulen, country manager the Netherlands, ABC.
“Within PGA, the Schiphol cargo community is mutually developing the required logistic chain to provide shippers and consignees with the best possible product.”
Naomi Landman, managing director of GEFCO Forwarding Netherlands, which recently gained its CEIV certification, said joining PGA was the perfect partnership.
“This initiative at Schiphol is another example of success by collaboration; each of our successes is by group effort, and for the good of the cargo community, and we are proud to be a part of it.”
The group recently announced that it had been awarded a one million Euro research grant to develop an early warning system for pharma shippers, which will help move cargo more quickly and safely through Amsterdam.
The money will fund data collection and monitoring of PGA shipments in order to identify changes such as temperature incursions.
This data will then be used to design a model to alert shippers to issues with their consignment. Schiphol has teamed up with Air France KLM Cargo, Cargonaut, and other PGA members for the project.
The Schiphol cargo community and Cargonaut will add performance management and alerting capabilities to the community cloud; Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and the Delft University of Technology will do the underlying research, contribute to the development, and measure the benefits for shippers and their transport suppliers.
“We are listening to shippers’ needs and working to improve transparency and cooperation in the pharma supply chain,” said Jonas van Stekelenburg, head of Cargo, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.
“Pharma shippers are asking for more visibility so they can have confidence that their sensitive cargo is being handled safely through the supply chain and find solutions if there are issues such as temperature incursions.
“This research will enable us to develop a system capable of stepping up to those challenges.”
In March, IATA presented PGA with a Certificate of Recognition for its support of the CEIV Program.
Glyn Hughes, global head of Cargo, IATA, said, “Having Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Europe’s third largest freight airport, and Air Cargo Netherlands, one of the region’s largest operators, support the CEIV Pharma Program is a significant boost for meeting shippers’ expectations in terms of standardisation and transparency across the supply chain in the region.”
