MONTREAL, CANADA – ULD Care, air cargo’s advocate for unit load devices (ULD), is hosting its first-ever virtual conference for association members. And for the first time, the event is open to the public.
“Along with the rest of the industry, ULD Care has had to pass on having its traditional annual face-to-face conference event in both 2020 and 2021,” says Urs Wiesendanger, president of ULD Care. “We are pleased to announce that on Feb. 16, 2022, ULD Care will host a virtual event to showcase the various activities and initiatives that we have been working on over the last 24 months.”
The past 24 months have been both challenging and exciting times for the world of ULD.
According to Bob Rogers, vice president and treasurer of ULD Care, “Challenging because the operating environment has become even less hospitable, particularly in regards to staff shortages, turnover, and the loss of knowledge that has come about. It has been exciting because, finally after many years of ‘technology doldrums,’ we finally have a good tail wind of relevant and affordable technologies that can deliver real benefits to the world of ULD.”
Air cargo has been a silver lining for the airline industry and cargo has been a lifesaver, from a revenue perspective, for many airlines around the world, says Wiesendanger.
“Unless you have been living on a desert island you will have been aware of all sorts of headlines regarding supply chain disruption, and while the majority of these have been around either port congestion or road transportation,” he says. “Air cargo hasn’t been without its challenges, but we should be thankful for small mercies,” he says.
Rogers says the virtual event will not be hosted on Zoom, but on a platform called Mien Tzu that provides a more conference-like experience. Rogers says it will include six different tracks, and the content in the conference will cover:
- Aligning the application of demurrage in air cargo ULD operations with those of other modes of transport, such as ocean shipping, and ULD Care's work-to-date on this subject.
- Developing industry standard KPI’s for a range of ULD activities.
- Relaunching the ULD Care communications strategy.
- Putting App’s to work. ULD Care has already launched a beta version of a paperless UCR, and has a number of other ambitions in mind - this track will share progress so far and look to the future.
- Delivering cost-effective and measurable training that will actually make a difference in the workplace is a challenge for the industry and the old ways are simply no longer sustainable. ULD Care has been incubating some new approaches to this problem, learn about them in this track.
- Sustainability is an inescapable subject and there is a very large amount of completely unnecessary waste around cargo handling operations – ULD Care is leading a change to that part of the industry.
In order to cover the largest number of potential participants in the virtual conference, Rogers explains, the meeting will commence at 16:00 hours GMT on Feb. 16 and run for a little over five hours.
“Global time zones make it impossible to accommodate every person but the conference will be recorded and made available for viewing after the event,” Rogers says.
Registration is available at https://mientzu.com/live-detail/uld-care-virtual-conference-2022
