Deliverables
ULD CARE shall be continually directing its membership and other resources towards:
- Elimination of waste and efficiency improvement in ULD operations
- Management of Risk in ULD operations
- Utilization and adaptation of new technologies in ULD operations
- Global standardization of ULD regulatory and operational practices
Initiatives
In support of the ULD CARE deliverables and in consultation with the membership, the Board will, on an ongoing basis:
- Evaluate industry needs
- Formulate suitable responses to these needs
- Facilitate actions to support these responses
- Promote industry wide acceptance of new practices and procedures
(2012-2013) UCR – eUCR
ULD CARE would like to recognize the work of a very productive working group that has completed its mandate under the leadership of Charles Drummond of CHEP Aerospace Solutions.
The intent of this working group was to revisit the current UCR (ULD Control Receipt) which has not changed in many years and was mostly created for airlines, redesign it to make it accessible across the whole ULD logistics chain stakeholders (ground handlers, freight forwarders, etc.) and introduce an electronic version for ease of operations. More background information can be found in the presentation Charles made at the Vancouver Conference (B04-2 E-UCR Advisory Group Update).
This working group was formed in Shanghai in September 2012 and has now submitted its final report. You may read their update and recommendations in the Deliverables and Initiatives section of the ULD CARE website in the following documents:
(2013) ULD IDENTIFICATION CODE – 4TH POSITION
A presentation was made at the Annual Conference in Vancouver titled: Changes to the IATA ULD Identification Code System.
This was the result of a desire to answer the needs expressed by the industry and find a solution to address the increasing number of new ULD contours, new ULD categories like temperature controlled and fire suppression equipment and, number one on the list, find a way to identify lightweight ULDs.
In the current format of the ULD ID Code, there are only 3 characters to describe the ULD type, the 3rd one being assigned to the contour or compatibility of the ULD. In recent years, ULD owners have used the 3rd position to identify specific container types improvising codes that are not recognized by the industry. The reason is that there are not enough letters in the alphabet to adequately serve this purpose, especially with the many new types of ULDs on the market.
The presentation, which is available in the Annual Conference Archives of the ULD CARE website, was followed by a dynamic Q&A session where the presenter, Urs Wiesendanger, was able to clarify that, although the intention is to put forward a recommendation to IATA to modify the current Regulations and allow the use of a letter in the 4th position of the ULD ID Code, it will not be mandatory for the ULD owners to retroactively remark their ULDs. For the others, this will provide a consistent way to identify ULDs for global recognition and this will put an end to the proliferation of ULD coding improvisation leading to confusion. This proposal is meant to offer the industry a solution in the form of a common standard. In most cases, this will only be done for new purchased ULDs. Bottom line, if this recommendation is implemented by IATA, those who want to identify ULD specific categories like Lightweight, garment, door type, etc., will find a reference in the IATA ULD Regulations Manual in order to use the proper coding convention.
A survey about the proposed recommendation was conducted in Vancouver with the airlines and ULD owners present and was further sent by email to all ULD CARE members who own ULDs. We are happy to report that out of the 30 completed surveys we received, 86% of the respondents were either neutral or generally in favor of the proposal.
