IATA launches Dangerous Goods AutoCheck
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has launched its DG AutoCheck solution, which is designed to enhance safety and improve efficiency in the transport of dangerous goods by air.
In a statement issued yesterday (14 March), Nick Careen, Senior Vice President, Airport, Passenger, Cargo and Security, IATA, said: “The air transport industry handles in excess of 1.25m dangerous goods shipments transported per year.
“With the air cargo growth forecast at 4.9% per year over the next five years this number will rise significantly.
“To ensure that air cargo is ready to benefit from this growth the industry needs to adopt modern and harmonized standards that facilitate safe, secure and efficient operations, particularly in relation to carriage of dangerous goods. DG AutoCheck is a significant step towards achieving this goal.”
DG AutoCheck is a digital solution that allows the air cargo supply chain to check the compliance of the Shipper’s Declaration for Dangerous Goods (DGD) against all relevant rules and regulations contained in the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations. The tool enables electronic consignment data to be received directly, supporting the digitization of the cargo supply chain. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology also transforms a paper DGD into electronic data. This data is then processed and verified automatically using the XML data version of the DGR.
David Brennan, Assistant Director, Cargo Safety and Standards, IATA, added: “The DGR lists over 3,000 entries for dangerous goods. Each one of which must comply with the DGR when shipped. The paper DGR is 1,100 pages long. Manually checking that each Shipper’s Declaration is compliant and the package(s) are correctly, marked, labelled and packaged is a complex and time consuming task.
“Automation with DG AutoCheck brings us a giant step forward. The cargo supply chain will benefit from greater efficiency, streamlined processes and enhanced safety.”
