Hactl

Company visit 3

Company Name : Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited (Hactl)
Company Address : SuperTerminal 1, 9 Chun Wan Road, Hong Kong International Airport, Hong Kong
Date of Visit : 13 March 2015

Schedule :

1. Video showing
2. Visit facilities
3. Q&A session

Company background

Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited (Hactl) is one of the world’s leading air cargo terminals and the only neutral air cargo terminal operator at Hong Kong International Airport. Since 1976, Hactl has operated almost 40 years and established to support the import, export and transshipment of air cargo in Hong Kong. With the innovative technology, excellent service and professional employees, Hactl becomes the leader of the air cargo industry in Hong Kong and until now.

In order to maintain the daily operation smoothly, Hactl has total floor area up to 395,000 sqm and total site area up to 175,600 sqm which can handle the capacity up to 3.5 million tonnes per annual. To provide diversity services to their customers, Hactl has different kinds of system and facilities.

Hactl has Automated Cargo Handling System, which included Container Storage System and Box Storage System. Also it has several number of automatic transfer vehicle and workstations to ensure the system function well. Besides, Hactl has Special Cargo Handling Facilities, which included Dangerous Goods Store, Express Centre Airside Transfer Frontage, Livestock Handling Centre, Livestock Room, Onboard Courier Centre, Radioactive Goods Store, Refrigerated Cargo Centre, Twenty-Foot ULD Handling Centre and Valuable Cargo Handling Centre.

Video showing

In the beginning, the staff have show a video for us. This video has introduced the duty of Hactl. It has briefly describes the facilities and services offered by the company. It has serves 1000 airlines and 10000 other customers. It also introduce the information technology - COSAC-Plus.

Visit facilities

Q & A Sections

1. One of your service you provided indicated that “The first 48 Hours (from 0000 hours on the day of arrival & the Sunday and Public Holiday within the storage-free period)”, will there be large demand for such service?  How do you match the supply and demand if the service is free?

The storage fee depends on the type of cargo and the duration. For import general cargo, the rate for the first 48 hours (from 0000 hours on the day of arrival & the Sunday and Public Holiday within the storage-free period) is free. The Following days will be charge to $2.4kg per day. For Import Valuable Cargo,  the rate for the first 48 hours is free and charge $2.4kg per day for the following 3 days. However, there is a min. $300 shipment per day for the 4th day onwards.

In fact, the answer did not mention in the visit. We think that the free service will not directly affect the demand. Since service level is important to business (Hactl and their clients), they want to provide the fastest way to deliver their good to final destination. Therefore, Most cargo will be transshipped by using other transportation mode(eg. Truck) to send to the final destination as soon as possible. There are small proportion of cargo will be stored. In fact, if the cargo is stored, the more fee you have to pay.

They did not mention how to match with the demand. We think that it may be the use of EDI and COSAC-Plus or other information system to forecast the supply and demand.

2.  How does the development of HACIS (Hong Kong Air Cargo Industry Services Limited) help facilitating the shipping processes of HACTL?

Hacis is subsidiary of Hactl to provide logistic services. Hacis provides efficient road feeder services in Hong Kong as well as connecting to mainland China. It helps facilitating the ship process of Hactl. Hacis' SuperLink China Direct offers two-way customs-bonded road feeder service. This is connecting Hong Kong International Airport and China. Also, Hacis' trucks are registered with Intermodal Transshipment Facilitation Scheme (ITFS) and Quick Pass Mode (QP), offering non-stop transportation across the border. Therefore, Hactl and Hacis provide a series of service to customers to ensure good quality.

3.      How will you respond to the increasing demand caused by the third runway?

Hactl support to construct the third runway. The introduction of Hacis to support the third runway. The expert predict that the cargo capacity of Hong Kong will be fully used due to the third runway. The Hacis can balance the fulfilment between Hong Kong and Southern China, which means the cargo is collected in hk and moved to another airport that has spare capacity. Both parties can win in this situation and it enables hk to continue to work as a hub to meet the demand.  On the other hand, the company is collaborating with HDHL to find out more business opportunities to form joint ventures and work with other airports in mainland china. Besides, the company is also explore a new multi modal transhipment service in order to offer the best and more efficient service to their clients. 

4. Since the demand on air cargo has recently been increasing, how do Hactl deal with this problem and ensure your service quality?

To face with the increasing demand on air cargo, Hactl aims to remain their leading position of air cargo terminal in Hong Kong. In order to achieve this, Hactl is living up to their core values, which are Trust, Respect, Professionalism, Integrity and Teamwork. As they believe that when they can fully understand those terms and perform them well, they can give the best things and services to their customers.

Besides, Hactl is continuing invest in innovative technologies and enhancing the logistics supports between Hong Kong and mainland China in order to optimise their operations and resources. Also, Hactl is consistently engaging the best and professional people who can deliver excellent service in their business, in order to fulfill the customers’ expectations.  

5. It was mentioned on your site that the latest Hactl drill demonstrated that systems could be fully resumed in a maximum of four hours should there be a system failure, has there ever been such failures in the past when such precautions were not in place? How did it affect your operations?

If the system of Hactl has failure, it would run reserve system automatically. The daily operations, such as packing, distributing and retrieving the goods, would operate as usual. As the data would be backed up, the reserve system can retrieve the data from the backed up data. It can have the most updated storage location of all the goods. According to the introduction by the staff of Hactl, there is not a failure in the past when such precautions were not in place.

6. Listed under 'Special Cargo Handling Facilities' is a livestock room at Hactl, what exactly does this entail and how do you handle it when there is outbreak of influenza virus?

Special Cargo Handling Facilities include many facilities, such as dangerous & radioactive goods storage, express centre and livestock handling centre. Livestock handling centre is used to serve the travelling animals and pets. It provides the most comfort environment to them.

In 2008, Hong Kong hold the 08 Olympic Equestrian Events. Hactl was responded to transfer the horses for competition. A special livestock handling centre was built for the horses. The centre was decorated as the normal stable. Also, the horses for competition were accompanied by their parents. Those aimed to provide a comfort environment to them. This could help the horses to not be afraid of travelling.

For the question of handling the outbreak of influenza virus, the staff of Hactl did not mention on that day.

7. In the age of globalization, will you consider to expand your business overseas?

For Hactl, expanding their business overseas is not their main focus right now. They are trying to expand their market share in Hong Kong by different ways due to the establishment of the air cargo terminal operator of Cathay Pacific. In order to fully utilized their assets and capacity, they are putting more effort on cooperating with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

8. How do you make use of the automation to improve your efficiency?

Hactl believe that automation machine is very important. It can lower number of mistake, fasten the process and improve efficiency. Therefore Hactl has established different automation machine.

First, Hactl has a system called Box Storage System (BSS). It provides 10,000 computer-controlled storage positions for general import, export and transshipment cargo. It is customs-bonded with maximum security.

Also, the other facilities called Container Storage System (CSS). It is automated multi-floor system that provides more than 3,500 storage positions. The system has direct and covered interface with the airside.

In the warehouse, it has a yellow car called ATV. It helps to deliver the product to designated place. It is charge by electric. It is more environmental friendly. It will be efficiency than by doing manually.

9. What have you done in the environmental protection aspect?

To protect the environment, Hactl is using the electronic machines such as electric forklifts to unloading goods, using electronic automobile for the travelling within the airport area. They have 2-3 electronic charger within their building. Each forklift can use for 7-8 hours after charging. Also, they have other environment policy within their operation and building design. Other than the basic 3 kinds of recycling, they have also collect CDs, batteries and plastics for recycling. They Airway-bill to customers, can also help reducing the amount of paper used. Moreover, their building has a garden above that can reduce the use of air-conditioning and the air quality controlling that can provide better working environment to employees.

10.  How Hactl apply information technology in company operation in order to enhance its competitive advantages?

To maintain the efficiency of daily operation, Hactl develops COSAC-Plus which has more than 400 functions online to enhance their competitive advantages. Since there are over than 100 airline information such as airline schedule, COSAC-Plus is designed to facilitate efficient information sharing among all stakeholders. Besides sharing the information, users can also use COSAC-Plus to pursue the commodity. Users can make sure the safety of the commodity and whether it can arrive the terminal on time.  

Furthermore, some functions are available on mobile phones that users can insert the commodity number through the COSAC-Plus mobile app to pursue it. They can predict the arrival time of the commodity by searching the number, then they can prepare the jobs after receiving the commodity effectively and efficiently. Besides, users can use electronic bill of lading to take their commodity to reduce the usage of paper in order to protect the environment.

Reflections

We all have a great experience to the visit in Hactl. We can know more about the operation, service type and the related supporting activities of air cargo. We think that the reasons why they are so successful are their core values, which are Trust, Respect, Professionalism, Integrity and Teamwork.

Moreover, the company try to do their best in order to satisfy their client’s need and it makes Hactl so competitive in the industry. We realize that Hactl has put huge resource to improve the service and solve the safety problem. Also, the use of information system is another factor to contribute.

References:

http://www.hactl.com/en-US/Facilities/Box-Storage-System.aspx
http://www.hactl.com/en-US/Facilities/Special-Cargo-Handling-Facilities.aspx#.VT5BENKqqko
http://www.hactl.com/en-US/About-Hactl/Company-Profile.aspx#.VT5BG9Kqqko