online-survey about the 11-Digit (IATA) MAWB –with
focus on an individual Piece-ID
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About the
author: Carlheinz
Schorr is working since 20 years for one of the leading companies in the Express
business with an special focus on airfreight. About the
survey: The
survey is part of a Master thesis of an extra occupational master study with
emphasis on logistics.
About the
background of the initial problem: Without
an individual piece identifier (=Piece-ID) it is not explicit possible to
locate a single piece of an multi-piece shpt. Airline
systems do also normally a mathematical even break down weight wise then.
Example:
On these systems then each single piece of a 2 piece shpt with 100kg in
total would weight 50kg. Although in reality the weights might be different,
like 1 piece is only 10kg and the other piece 90 kg. This
method has therefore some mostly unpleasant sideeffects for the Shipper/Consignee
as well as for the involved Airline or transportation company. Eg.: -Customs
will be calculated on the (wrong) weight part. -Claims
could often not be linked to the correct piece(s) because of this. -Compensations
for Claims might be wrongly calculated (if based on weight of damaged/missing
pieces) -Burden
of proof is difficult. -POD’s
/ Proof of deliveries are not distinct. -etc.
The IATA
has planned to approach this problem in their Cargo 2000 Imitative –it was
incorporated into their "Phase 3 Strategy" to be precise - however
that has not come to pass. They did
develop a series of CIMP piece level tracking messages for this purpose back
in 2000 but these have not been implemented by the industry as yet. These
messages would be: PIECE
MANIFEST (FPM) MESSAGE PIECE
STATUS REQUEST (FPR) MESSAGE PIECE
STATUS ANSWER (FPA) MESSAGE PIECE
STATUS UPDATE (FPU) MESSAGE It was
envisioned that this piece identifier would be included in the bar coded label
following the air waybill number. In accordance with this a changed IATA
resolution was made. See excerpt from IATA Resolution 600a: Primary
Bar Code (Air Waybill/Piece Number Information) A
primary bar code, of sixteen continuous numeric characters,
in which the encoded data shall comprise the following fields: =
the three-digit numeric airline prefix; =
the eight-digit numeric air waybill number; =
a single digit separator (shall always be zero); =
a four-digit numeric unique piece number, indicating each individual piece in
a multi-piece shipment. If
this field is not used, it shall comprise four zeros; Unfortunately
the industry has only implemented and stuck with the last sentence above and
it comprises four zeroes. (As ad-on to the 11 digit MAWB) This
means on the other hand also, that with this method “only” a max of 9999
single pieces per MAWB could be linked / identified. (or 10000, if you also
count the „0000“ as piece number)
Additional
to this, there are some other methods / standards available -or already in
use- in the industry. Like the „license plate number” (=A combination of
letters & digits) , which would however also require more than 4 digits as
well as for example the „GS1 Serial Shipment Container Code (SSCC)”. Links for
„license plate number”: http://www.infosight.com/wp-lpn.htm Links for
„SSCC”:
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