WCS 2018: Schiphol to release data-sharing tool for flower shipment data

DALLAS – Soon, customers who receive a shipment of fresh-cut roses may be able to tell exactly where the flowers came from, how long the journey took and what condition they are in with just a glance at the air waybill (AWB).

Today at IATA’s World Cargo Symposium, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS) revealed plans to launch its own data-sharing platform that will provide supply chains access to the status of associated real-time data regarding flower shipments.

The platform, which is part of the airport’s Smart Cargo Mainport Program, will create a link between an air waybill number and cargo data, such as number of boxes, flower type and number of stems per box, and generates a unique code that partners will use to access information through their internal systems.

“Through close collaboration between the floriculture and air cargo sectors, we are now able to link two critical sets of data and increase trust between parties by making that data available to everyone, at all times,” said Jonas van Stekelenburg, Head of Cargo, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.

Holland Flower Alliance, a group comprised of logistics and floriculture industry professionals, and logistics companies Kuehne + Nagel and Panalpina, share involvement in the initiative.

“The development and launch of this data sharing platform is a real example that we are doing ‘new stuff’ benefiting all stakeholders in the floriculture chain,” said Marcel de Nooijer, executive vice president at Air France-KLM.