Amsterdam Airport Schiphol will no longer be accepting paper declarations from April 1st as part of the hub's efforts to hasten the cargo handling process.
In a statement, it said starting this month, Schiphol will be switching to Automated Nomination, the digital declaration of a forwarder's involvement in the handling of a shipment — allowing shipments to be processed before they arrive.
This will become the "standard for inbound shipments" at Schiphol, one of Europe's busiest cargo gateways.
Prior to Automated Nomination, ground handlers at Schiphol Airport would have to wait for the freight to arrive and review the corresponding paperwork before a forwarder could be nominated to handle the shipment.
"With Automated Nomination, this process has been completely digitized and now takes place at an earlier stage, prior to the flight landing at the airport," the hub said.
With this, ground handlers at Schiphol will also now be informed about incoming shipments much sooner, reducing the time required to process cargo, while the elimination of manual processing has minimized the possibility of human error and shipment mishandling.
"We have been piloting Automated Nomination with growing success since October 2021 and are proud to have now rolled it out officially as a mandatory process at Schiphol Airport," said David van der Meer, Cargo Partnerships Director for the Smart Cargo Mainport Program (SCMP), Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.
"We aim to have every shipment nominated automatically, which offers benefits for every stakeholder in the cargo supply chain," van der Meer added, noting that Automated Nomination creates a better connection between the air waybill (AWB) and the receiving forwarder.
Automated Nomination is an algorithm that predicts which forwarder will collect a shipment using only AWB, airline, and shipper data, with a 99% accuracy rate. It was developed by the SCMP team.
In order to be compliant with Automated Nomination, a digital station declaration is required.
"Handlers, forwarders, and Schiphol Airport, in collaboration with Air Cargo Netherlands, have introduced a digital station declaration, marking the end of the decades-old paper freight station statement," the airport said.
It added that the number of digital station declarations at Schiphol has already seen a record increase, from 1,200 declarations in October last year to 3,000 declarations by April this year.
Schiphol said the number of forwarders participating in Automated Nomination has meanwhile increased from 60 to 140, with numbers still growing.
Efforts toward sustainability
Apart from bringing greater efficiencies to cargo operations at Schiphol, the reduction in paper and the ability to combine shipments during the transfer process will also help push sustainability goals.
Schiphol noted that Automated Nomination will also optimize import planning and fuel future developments at Schiphol, as better data will be available sooner.
"Literally every part of the cargo chain will benefit from Automated Nomination," said Luc Scheidel, SCMP program manager, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. "We expect all of our cargo partners to be pleased that we've made it a mandatory process as of 1st April 2022, and in particular with the operational efficiencies they will gain as a result."
Automated Nomination is the latest in a series of digital initiatives under the SCMP that are streamlining cargo services at Schiphol, including the digital station declaration, which has made handling more structured and secure since January 2022, and the Milkrun project, which has streamlined truck movements at the airport.
"With every digital service we activate from within the SCMP, we get closer to our goal of having the most seamless cargo process in Europe," van der Meer said.
