Doug Strachan
President
SST: Strachan Strategic Thinking
1755 North Brown Rd., Suite 200
Lawrenceville, GA 30043

TruckPass

Situation

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While ATL is the world's busiest airport in terms of passenger air traffic and annual operations, it's not even in the top 20 airports relative to cargo air service. A new mayor had a vision to change that, challenging us do what was required to set the stage for sustainable growth.

Delta Air Lines, controlling about 80% of passenger air service at ATL, had its own midfield cargo operation, designed to optimize revenue from bellyhold cargo; the kind of cargo air service that was a better target for enhancement was freighter traffic located on the Southside of the airfield. 

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The City of Atlanta owned and leased three cargo buildings in that location, and was in the process of finding a lessee for a newly constructed fourth building. Each of the buildings was approximately 100,000 sq. feet, and had about 28 operational docks each.  Lufthansa and Swissport controlled building A; AGI controlled building B; building C, the new building, was not yet let; Swissport controlled building D. 

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The City of Atlanta Department of Aviation had recently closed its Northside ATL perishables center.

Task

Do the discovery, development, and implementation needed to make ATL more attractive than its competitors relative to certain cargo air traffic target sectors, leading to significant and sustainable growth.

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Action

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Copious discovery and diligent development lead to four viable options: 1) Develop an airport funded Southside perishables center with an emphasis on pharmaceutical cold chain; 2) find an integrator, e.g., FedEx, UPS, or DHL, to increase its ATL footprint; 3) solve an long-standing cargo docking congestion issue; and 4) dramatically increasing the available warehouse space dedicated to cargo freighter traffic.

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Careful listening to the aforementioned cargo handlers, i.e., Lufthansa, Swissport, and AGI, revealed that the. critical path was the congestion issue. Validating that involved finding a vantage spot atop building A, Lufthansa's building, after typical working hours, and observing an evening's docking choreography for a few hours. Almost simultaneously, there were 400% more trucks than available dock space. Think whatever idiom you feel is most appropriate, e.g., "hot mess," and you will get the picture. Observant truckers begged for a solution. Some of them got into fist fights over relative position in the queue. Trucks were quadrupled parked, hampering dock entrance/egress. Trucks were lined up on South Loop road for more than one-quarter mile. The police were called to adjudicate matters.

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Within two hours the solution became crystal clear. Air Traffic Controllers, sequencing and separating airplanes in flight, prevented this type of congestion in the skies. Ramp Traffic Controllers doing the same prevented ramp congestion. ATL needed Cargo Dock Traffic Controllers!​

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Additional discovery indicated that this type of congestion was endemic at the world's major commercial air service airports, so benchmarking them was not an option. A solution that was new to an aviation context required development. 

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So we started with the end; we drew out, on the proverbial napkin, how the idealized solution should work, and then we set out to find an entity that could implement such a process. Within several months, we had found Assa Abloy's 4Sight Yard Management system, endorsed by users such as Toyota, Honda, and Costco. A trip to Atlanta's Costco distribution warehouse validated the solution. However, Costco's operation was somewhat different than the needs of the world's busiest airport; hence, we needed to incorporate some software modifications before the new system could provide the needed solution.

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Results

In 2015 we rolled out TruckPass, the world's first airport dock traffic control system of its type. Instead of arriving en masse to a limited number of docks at peak pick up and drop off times, we directed to the purpose built TruckPass lot, where they interface with Dock Traffic Controllers we hired and trained on the 4Sight-based system. The lot is less than one-half mile from the cargo buildings, with easy entrance and egress.

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Arriving at the TruckPass Dock Traffic Control station, truckers answer four quick questions: 1) which airline are you here for; 2) is this a pick up or drop off; 3) is this a scheduled or unscheduled operation; and 4) what is your cell phone number. Within about 60 seconds of arriving, truckers either have an assigned dock or are asked to wait in the TruckPass lot until receiving a texted docking credential.

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The TruckPass system has eliminated the docking congestion that plagued ATL's cargo operation for so long, paving the way, figuratively and literally, for year over year growth. As an important side bonus, safety has improved tremendously, as first responders are no longer impeded due to impassable traffic.