The first meeting, chaired by GM Cargo Commercial George Edmunds, brought together representatives from the Commercial, Product, Revenue Management (which looks after inventory), and Service Delivery teams, as well as managers from the Cathay Cargo Terminal. Subsequent meetings involved Cargo Managers from outports, especially those close to vaccine manufacturing sites. ‘They are our eyes and ears,’ says John Cheng, Head of Cargo Marketing and Products.
It quickly became clear that such a colossal task would need a bespoke solution. Cathay Cargo’s Vaccine Solution – draws on the best of Pharma LIFT and Priority LIFT, and adds more – including guaranteed priority upload for shipments and the accelerated roll-out of Ultra Track, the new name for the next-generation track-and-trace system that Cathay Cargo has been trialling over the past 12 months or so.
Ultra Track is a multi-dimensional tracking and data-logging system that uses low-energy Bluetooth transmitters, placed within individual boxes in a shipment, to record and transmit GPS position, temperature, vibration and humidity in near real-time, making it ideal for temperature-sensitive and fragile shipments. It’s not ready to roll out across the entire network in one go, but its phased introduction will focus on markets where the vaccine manufacturers are situated and the destinations where the vaccines are being sent.
The system will work in tandem with the newly established Operations Control Centre based in Hong Kong. Working in shifts, the team monitors shipments 24/7, and can take proactive steps to intervene should any cargo start to experience temperature excursions, delays, equipment malfunction or damage on the ground.
The Operations Control Centre adds a new layer of assurance for customers. ‘It will be staffed by a team of cargo operations professionals to ensure that shipments have the highest level of care,’ says Frosti Lau, GM Cargo Service Delivery.
That’s vital for the vaccine shipments. ‘The high value of the vaccines before they become widely available is a risk factor at a corporate level,’ explains Cheng. And the consequences of something going wrong are very serious in health and financial terms. ‘Most of the specialist forwarders we have contacted are very interested in the Ultra Track product,’ he adds.