CSC expands trucking service
GONE ARE the days when providing a good handling service to the airlines was the sole function of a ground handling agent (GHA). Instead much more is required of the GHA today. The company must be able to branch out into new avenues in order to satisfy clients' demands, says Lynda Longmore of Cargo Service Center (CSC).
"In this ever-changing industry, and with some of the airlines terminating their services to South Africa, we have had to change our outlook on the cargo handling industry," she says.
"We have had to become security experts, IT experts, quality control system experts as well as expanding into trucking, to be able to offer the services our clients are seeking."
The security-conscious CSC has installed some of the most advanced surveillance equipment in all three of its
facilities. This, says Longmore, is not a 'nice to have' item any more, but has become part and parcel of a handling agent's services to cater for the volume of hi tech, high value airfreight moving through the warehouses.
"Although we have always done a small amount of trucking in the past, we have now expanded this in South Africa as an added value service to our clients. CSC, through its network of 65 stations in 17 countries, has been very successful in providing cargo handling and trucking services to more than 100 airlines worldwide, and that is the route we have taken in South Africa.
"We now operate trucking services between Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth which means the airlines can sell these destinations on their systems," she says.
Some of the other services provided to airlines include operating customer service and call centres for them as well as full reservations and accounting processes.
"As the world's largest independent air cargo handling company, the strategy of CSC is based on providing a consistent menu of high quality services across the globe in order to meet the exacting demands of international airlines."
