Company Visit - Hactl

Company background

Founded in 1976 and located at Hong Kong International Airport, Hactl has been one of the world's busiest cargo limited. Hactl has been striving to provide consistent and high quality services to over hundreds airline companies and freight forwarders. Offering value-added services including pre-arrival customs clearance, import scheduled collection, schedule empty unit release etc, Hactl’s aim is to provide services that exceed customers’ expectations. Because of the large size of data transaction processed, Hactl has invested on innovating technology for making information and logistics operation process smooth. In this regard, airline customers can benefit by checking cargo status through internet and mobile application. In 2014, Hactl has been honored with the Best Service Provider Asia Pacific Region to recognize its outstanding performance.

Visit flow

At the beginning, we were being arranged to watch a video about Hactl company background and operation. After that, we were divided into three groups for visiting the facilities and reflective vest was required to wear for safety reason. The on-site visiting includes warehouse, super terminal and unloading area. We were all fascinated by the awesome Box storage system (BSS) and Container storage system (CSS) etc. At last, Q & A session was included. Overall, it is a valuable opportunity to experience real logistic system rather than learning in class.

Q&A

1. After the opening of Cathay Pacific Cargo Terminal, how does it affect your company’s business performance?  How does Hactl react to its local and global rivalries?

As Cathay Pacific is one of the largest customers of Hactl, its performance has been immensely affected with its utilization decreased from more than 90% to 60%. To react to local and global rivalries, Hactl continuously strives to achieve its mission by optimizing operations and resources, investing in innovative technologies continuously, and most importantly providing services that exceed customers’ expectations. With Hactl’s effort to maintain its service level, Hactl is able to handle 3.5 million tons of air cargo per year, which is still a large figure. 

2. What will you do proactively if the similar event occurred again?

As cargo operation is the same and customers remain constant, competing with other Cargo Limited is unavoidable. Therefore, Hactl acts more proactively by keeping its core values, which are Trust, Respect, Professionalism, Integrity, Teamwork, and providing customers with outstanding services. Hactl has also been putting effort in keeping customers’ loyalty to foster a cargo company of great reliability. By allocating resources to IT to optimize its service level, Hactl hopes to stay competitive.

3. What efforts have you made in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility to achieve its sustainability?  For example, what are the means used in reducing the greenhouse gas emission and wastes from packaging?

Hactl has been encouraging workers to recycle paper, plastic, bottles. In addition, those wooden pallets and plastic wrapping observed in the visit will be recycled to reduce waste and thus comply with sustainable development. For minimizing greenhouse gas emission, Hactl introduces electrically-power cars (E-car) instead of frequently used petrol car. Charging stations has been set up to power up the electric cars.

4. Hong Kong Airport Authority continues to expand HKIA’s catchment area beyond Hong Kong and into the PRD.  What are the strategies for Hactl to seize this business opportunity?

By expanding catchment area beyond Hong Kong and into PRD, services such as ferry services from HKIA’s SkyPier, Mainland coach services, road and rail links etc, can definitely facilitate passengers flow and most importantly, cargo flow between HKIA and PRD. Being one of the first known cargo limited in Hong Kong, Hactl can utilize the proximity to PRD as an advantage to further enhance the cargo business. Apart from this, cost reduction due to the connectivity with PRD will also be an advantage. The cost Hactl saves can be put on IT investment to further enhance the efficiency of operation. Thus, it is evident that the expansion of HKIA is beneficial to Hactl business.

5. How does Hactl tackle the increasing competition from other competitors in the Pearl River Delta?

To Hactl, more competitors in Pearl River Delta does not necessarily mean that it can pose a threat to its business. Oppositely, the proximity to Pearl River Delta has been a competitive edge as the transport network can sometimes enhance cooperation between Hactl and competitors. Transporting goods between mainland and Hong Kong is also more convenient. Thus, the proximity is beneficial to its business, to a large extent.

6. How does Hactl use information technology to manage the receipt, storage, delivery of containers?

Cosac-plus and Cosac mobile application are the information technology used by Hactl.

Cosac-plus is developed by Hactl itself to facilitate efficient information sharing among all stakeholders including the airlines, freight forwarders, Hong Kong Airport Authority, Customs and Excise Department. In this system, more than 100 airline clients, real time flights schedules, consignment status are stored, so clients can extract the information easily.

Another information technology is Cosac mobile application. The parties involved such as truck drivers, Carrier Company, can easily know the delivery details, as the Cosac mobile application enables them to track the flight status, cargo status or storage charges etc. One worth mentioning is the air waybill. When the relevant parties input the airway bill number, necessary information can be found. As the above are done electronically and easily accessed, the process of managing receipt, storage and delivery can be very smooth.

7. Global warming is an important issue. How can Hactl minimize the emission of carbon?

The most obvious is recycling the plastic wrapping used for packing cargo mentioned previously, as the plastic will be put into collection bins after used. On the other hand, Hactl introduces biofuel for forklift trucks which produces cleaner emissions. As discussed, electrically-power cars (E-car) are also introduced to replace petrol cars. The transaction, necessary document or e-flights are done electronically to reduce usage of paper, so fewer trees are needed as a result produce fewer carbon gases. Being qualified for an Excellent Class Indoor Air Quality Certificate recently, Hactl has been taken lots of measures to improve the air quality and be environmentally friendly.

8. What is the contingency plan of Hactl under extreme weather when employees are required to work outdoor?

If typhoon signal number 8 or above is hoisted, people are immediately prohibited to work at aircraft parking apron because it is too dangerous. However, this does not mean the workers can have holiday. The flight scheduled will be delayed or cancelled, and thus affecting efficiency and timeliness of cargo handling. Thus, the experienced people working at parking apron should stand by at any time to work closely with airline so as to ease the cargo bottleneck and facilitate the resumption of the operation in the apron once the typhoon leaves.

9. Hong Kong International Airport is planning to build the third runway.  What will be the impact on Hactl’s logistic operations?

As the airport is close to saturation, it is necessary to build the third runway. This will undeniably benefit Hactl’s logistics operation as the more the runway, more take-off and landing are possible. More airline customers can be attracted to Hong Kong and be the potential customer of Hactl. In this case, routine operation such as physical handling, ramp handling, crew transportation, intermodal services etc, can be facilitated and as a result enhance the operation optimization, which is beneficial to the business of Hactl.

10. What are the challenges of handling large volume of goods?

Compared to dealing with small volume of goods, handling large volume of goods is much easier as the requirements, for example the way of packing, is almost the same. For example, handling large volume of goods like cars, aero engines and the stage of concert by 20 inch container is a daily routine which is not challenging at all.

In contrast, handling with small volume of goods is very challenging. The size, shape, weight are all different so Hactl needs to constantly think of different ways to deal with this, ensuring the goods are effectively packed to achieve efficiency and timeliness.

References:

Hactl official website

http://www.hactl.com/zh-HK/Home.aspx

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