Air, Freight News

Major change in the air for Heathrow – on the ground and online

[ October 24, 2024   //   Chris Lewis ]

Big changes are coming to London Heathrow, both in terms of the airport’s physical cargo infrastructure and the way in which the UK’s primary gateway will operate in future, a seminar organised by the CCS UK User Group was told on 24 October.

Heathrow Airport head of cargo, James Golding outlined the plans for redeveloping the physical infrastructure, much of which dates back to the 1960s and which was designed before 40ft-long trucks were a common sight on the roads. The famous – or infamous – ‘Horseshoe Road’ area (Shoreham Road and Sandringham Road) will cease to be. The site will be cleared and a new Cargo West area will be developed. Plans for what will be put in this area have not yet been finalised, but it could consist of up to four major blocks, each with its own yard and gatehouse.

The large buildings currently occupied by IAG Cargo – the dominant carrier at Heathrow – will remain unchanged, but an adjacent area currently used for various purposes including a concrete plant will be redeveloped as a Cargo East area, possibly a fifth large block.

Golding added: “Crucially, there will be no truck parking within this estate.” A remote parking area, possibly near the Terminal 4 passenger facility, will be provided, but the current truck spaces in the middle of Shoreham Road will disappear. Using some of the most expensive real estate in the world as a truck park area makes no commercial sense, HAL reasons.

This will have major implications for the way in which the airport will operate in future and, indeed, “we will need to have new systems in play before we start this redevelopment”, Golding stated.

The final form of the redeveloped cargo area has not yet been finalised, nor has the timescale, although a start could be made in 2-3 years with completion over 8-10 years. That is a long time by the standards of normal construction schemes of similar size, but Heathrow Cargo Centre will need to stay in full operation while the work is going on and the work will need to be phased.

More consultation will be needed before the plan is brought to fruition, said Golding, and ensuring  that all the different entities are involved is an important part of the airport’s strategy. These include airlines, truckers, handling shed operators and freight forwarders. Heathrow Airport Ltd is on the point of formalising a Heathrow Cargo Community which aims to break down the barriers in what can up to now be a rather siloed industry and create a forum in which consultation can take place.

“Fostering a consensus is really important. I absolutely don’t believe in a top-down approach,” he told the gathering.

Golding’s own appointment is meanwhile evidence of a much more positive approach to cargo at Heathrow. He acknowledges that the current infrastructure is decades past its sell-by date and that cargo had been neglected for many years, but it the Covid pandemic recently underscored its importance and it is now seen as an import area of focus for Heathrow.

Golding unveiled the plans for the new Cargo Centre at a seminar organised by the user group for CCS-UK, a cargo community system owned by telecoms firm BT. This might at first sight seem an unusual choice of venue for an announcement about physical infrastructure, but the IT systems offered by CCS-UK will be vital in making the new cargo development run smoothly.  The fact that there will effectively be no onsite parking means that it is essential that the flow of trucks is managed efficiently

Programme director Guy Thompson explained that over the past few years, CCS-UK has been developing an AIS or Airfreight Information System that will offer a uniform platform for the entire air cargo community in the UK.

AIS includes a new truck slot booking system that allows operators to pre-book the times when they want to arrive at handling facilities to collect or deliver cargo and are seen as crucial to the future smooth running of the airport. Booking slots aren’t a new idea; other airports have already developed such schemes and they are also used by seaports and supermarket distribution centres. Amsterdam has refined slot booking to a greater extent than any other European air gateway. Frankfurt’s effort was less successful, being essentially an adapted seafreight system, but the German airport is persisting with the project and has made a number of improvements.

However, slot booking remains quite a new concept and while the system is available and ready to use as part of AIS, it will doubtless need tweaking and many refinements before it is fully-fledged. CCS has signed up around 90 users and is encouraging others to do so. The fact that using the slot booking system will give users a degree of priority could be an incentive to encourage more users to join up. Trucks with pre-booked slots would get top priority, followed by those booking ad hoc slots at shorter notice. Trucks without slots get the lowest priority.

The system is currently processing some 3,000 truck movements a week and issuing 7,000 truck status updates.

However, even putting just 10% of collections and deliveries on the slot booking system could bring major benefits to users and transit shed operators, allowing them to plan operations rather than having to constantly work in a reactive way, dealing with all trucks turning up as they arrive unannounced.

One major prize for the system would be IAG Cargo, by far the biggest cargo airline at Heathrow and one that self-handles at the airport and discussions on creating a specific interface are continuing. Royal Mail has been using the system on a trial basis and is now stepping up its use.

Slot booking is a complex issue, particularly in airfreight. The time taken to load or unload trucks can vary greatly. One issue raised at the seminar are trucks making multiple calls at different handling sheds. If the truck was delayed at the first shed, how would the system manage the slots at the second and subsequent sheds? Port Health inspections and charges collect shipments also add complications. The system needs to be flexible to cope with last minute bookings such as urgent aircraft spares.

Golding is anxious to avoid a too-prescriptive approach. “We don’t want to mandate anything, to turn away business,” he said. It’s unlikely that hauliers who missed an occasional slot would be ‘punished’ in any way – other than by then having then to wait for the next available slot, although the system will yield valuable information on how different operators perform and also where any bottlenecks are.

The system will no doubt be updated and improved as experience is gained. Any IT project is complex, and this one especially so because of the large number of parties involved and all the different variables. However, the power of modern computers and artificial intelligence should not be underestimated.

CCS-UK has a number of other new features. These include eCollect, a collection note sent to the driver’s phone that not only gets rid of a major source of paper but could also improve security and prevent consignments being picked up by fraudsters using forged paperwork. The QR codes used in eCollect are impossible to forge, the gathering was told.

An eDropoff service is also being considered although this would be more complex than eCollect.

There is also an AWBWatch feature that updates forwarders on the customs status of shipments and should help avoid truck drivers being despatched to pick up goods that have not yet been cleared. It would also inform truckers when shipments are available for collection.

AISRoRo is also now available for shipments moving to or from the EU or Northern Ireland via, as the name implies ro ro shipping or Eurotunnel. It can inform the recipient what cargo is being despatched to them and it can create manifests. It will also handle Safety and Security and ICS2 declarations interface with the NCTS transit system.

AIS is available wherever CCS-UK operates, which includes the UK’s regional airports. These are far less busy than Heathrow and the pace of collections and deliveries more measured and predictable, but there could be advantages in slot bookings and collection times at airports such as Manchester. Where a haulier was known to be reliable and had booked a slot, cargo could be kept on hand near the pick-up point and avoid the need to move it to the storage area, for example.