The airfreight industry will face significant pressure once a vaccine for Covid-19 is developed, according to Stephen Bishop, airfreight director at CFR Freight. He says the industry is already under strain due to limited capacity and high rates, and the next challenge will be the rollout of potential vaccines for the pandemic.
“This will drive another wave of volumes, but due to the high level of uncertainty involved, most role players don’t know what to expect as yet or how to effectively prepare.”He said at CFR the teams around the country had remained resolute amidst the ongoing global crisis and continued to pull out all the stops to perform well.“We have improved our service and capacity on our German import lane despite the trying times.”
According to Bishop, limited capacity and high rates have not been the only challenges. Operationally it has also been difficult obtaining ad hoc rates for each shipment due to the limited contract rates in the market.
“This, in turn, increases the time to quote and handle shipments for our clients. It is not a challenge that was unique to us. To address this, we have redirected some of our operational staff around the country to give additional resources to our pricing teams.”Bishop said the company was still anticipating some form of a traditional peak season, but there was uncertainty over volumes. “In view of the limited capacity, while the volumes may not be the same as in previous years, the challenges will be relative.
