Oct/Nov 2006

British Airways Regional Cargo has started tracking the whereabouts of air freight using the Masternaut satellite-based tracking system.

This doesn't mean the business is tracking aircraft, though. Often air freight consignments have to be moved over quite substantial distances by road, and that's where BARC comes in. It provides a general cargo handling service for British Airways, operating from a central distribution centre close to Heathrow airport. This services for all BA flights to and from the UK regions and Ireland. The company also works for other major external airline customers.

Now BARC transport managers can access real-time information about the ground cargo fleet at any time via the Internet. Microsoft MapPoint online street mapping is used to provide real-world context and navigational intelligence to the vehicle positions. The company says the system has enhanced customer service and improved vehicle and driver management, and is also expected to result in an increase in capacity.

One of the features of the Masternaut system is that user-specific locations can be added to it. In BARC's case this includes security points and airside collection depots. As a result, vehicles can be monitored at these predetermined positions.

 

This plays to a specific BARC requirement. As part of its contract with British Airways, BARC has what is known as an "engagement policy", under which it must provide the estimated or guideline time when a vehicle should be on site.

The records vehicle based events produced by Masternaut are said to help BARC meet this requirement, including on-site waiting times and airside vehicle movements.

Russ Williams, BARC operations manager at Heathrow, says the system is also useful for creating driver reports. "Before we implemented the Masternaut solution it would take us approximately a week every month to collate information from paper logs in order to meet our obligations under the Working Time Directive.

"Now all we have to do is enter ad hoc information, such as driver holidays or sickness, and Masternaut does the rest."