Cargo iQ has improved its offset management tool ENCORE to provide better shipment visibility.

The not-for-profit airfreight quality standards group — with members including airlines, forwarders, ground handlers, IT solution providers and road feeder services (RFS) providers — said in accordance with their service level agreements (SLAs) with airline partners, ground handling agents (GHAs) now have access to service timelines for shipments.

This provides GHAs access to service timelines for shipments that can be related to the GHAs' SLAs with airline partners.

Cargo iQ said giving handlers greater visibility of shipment delivery timelines will drive better on-time performance with delivery timelines representing "crucial data for planning activities, reaching milestones and meeting service commitments."

This information is entered into the ENCORE system when an airline confirms that a forwarder can pick up a shipment within a certain amount of time after the relevant aircraft has landed.

The Cargo iQ Data Management Platform (CDMP) then uses this information to build the route map — which can then be monitored — for the shipment's journey.

The same principle is also true for the interface at the origin airport, where the on-time handover from the forwarder to the GHA is a critical step in the supply chain.

Cargo iQ noted that discrepancies in actual versus planned process times can lead to disputes between GHAs, airlines and forwarders, but with GHAs now able to view the service level agreement (SLA) data in ENCORE, there is a single place for referencing offsets, making it easier to meet targets.

"With this latest upgrade to ENCORE, all parties involved in the movement of a shipment will now have visibility on the planning that goes into creating a route map, which is essential for meeting on-time performance expectations and driving quality in the supply chain," said Chris Davies, technology and product manager at Cargo iQ.

He added that this visibility "not only means that shipments are more likely to arrive on time, but it also helps to protect the integrity of time-critical shipments and protect stakeholders from incurring unfair penalties when offsets are missed."

Elsewhere, earlier this year the new Freight On Hand (FOH) Cargo iQ tracking milestone was introduced by group members Turkish Airlines, Kuehne+Nagel and Swissport in their Nairobi operations, helping to successfully resolve issues with shipment acceptance.