We met Erik Byman in midtown Manhattan as a chilling late March wind locals have dubbed the “Hudson Hawk” cuts up from the Hudson River and careens through the canyons of buildings.
     We recall catching up with Erik in similar climes over the years—Moscow at Trans-Russia, the big logistics event held in the Russian capitol, and in Finland and Estonia in the deep winter.
     Erik is one of the most engaged logistics professionals in Northern Europe, Finland, and especially the Baltics, where he has been a regular fixture in Tallinn. He moved from a long distinguished career at Finnair Cargo to Baltic Transport Ltd., and back to Finnair; he now handles cargo as an owner—along with his friends and colleagues Levi Ekman and Haiti Arendi—of an interesting cargo outfit named Ospentos International OÜ.
     We like Erik because he is basically your “can-do” kind of executive—always on the job, he isn’t content until the customer is happy. He is also adaptable, as we learned the first time we met him in Tallinn in the late 1980s.
     We had rolled in to Tallin after a bumpy, all-night flight and a hydrofoil beer for breakfast.
     Erik greeted the press corps outside of Baltic Transport with a big smile, saying:
     “We are not much to look at, so let’s just enjoy the soft, early morning outside and I will tell you all about us.”
     With that the big Baltic Transport lorry parked nearby cranked open its back door, revealing a breakfast buffet.
     It was a small thing in a lifetime of press events.
     But all these years later, I still think about the surprise and fun we had in Tallinn that week with Erik.
     We’re incredibly happy to report that this stylish and very nice guy continues in fine form in 2015.
     Erik Byman’s Ospentos was established in 2006 in Tallinn, Estonia, as a neutral body specializing in air cargo handling and trucking to, from, and within Baltic States, Kaliningrad, Byelorussia, and Ukraine.
     From small beginnings (two airlines in 2009), today Ospentos in 2015 handles an air cargo business of more than 20 carriers.
     What Ospentos discovered is interesting, and maybe even a breakthrough—with a well experienced staff possessing a long history in air and road freight forwarding and air cargo handling, Ospentos has now come up with an in-house IT solution.
     The Ospentos geographical area is served 7 days a week on a scheduled basis between the capital airports. Trucks are equipped with rollerbed, temperature-controlled equipment and also feature GPS satellite monitoring systems.
     Ospentos air cargo terminal is located at Tallinn Lennart Meri Airport (TLL) in the Cargo-1 Building with direct rampside access.
     The facility is fully bonded and can handle both loose cargo and ULDs. Special areas for perishables and dangerous goods are also available.
     The company is approved by ECAA as the first ever regulated cargo agent in Estonia (EE/RA/00001-01/0514).


An Innovative Q-STEP

     Here is where things really get interesting.
     The entire Ospentos operation is monitored by an advanced, company-developed, web-based IT system branded “Q-STEP.”
     “Q-STEP facilitates a number of e-cargo possibilities,” Erik said.
     “Q-STEP OU is an Estonian-based service provider for IT solutions for the air cargo industry.
     “Q-STEP is a sophisticated air cargo terminal software with full capability of handling IATA eAWB standards.
     “The modern web-based application is driven by business intelligence optimizing resources and delivers efficiency.
     “The scope of Q-STEP activities covers the requirements for a modern exchange in the air cargo industry.
     “Q-Step is fully integrated with not only the customer airlines, RFS providers, and freight forwarders, but also with the various governmental offices, such as the Board of Customs (ICS/ECS).
     “In a nutshell, Q-STEP is a paperless air cargo terminal IT platform, built from the floor up by our group of air cargo professionals to serve customers with precision and simplicity.
     “This platform not only fulfills Cargo2000 and eAWB standards, but also enables any kind of data exchange with any parties involved in foreign trade: customs authorities, airlines, and freight forwarders,” Erik insists.

Side Step

     “The benefits of Q-STEP are mainly intelligent message handling and data processing as well as an easy-to-use concept tool for the daily users,” says Mr. Haiti Arendi, Member of the Board of Q-STEP OU, which was recently created as a separate company in Tallin to market the product.
     On April 1, 2015, Litcargus UAB, a leading ground handling company in Lithuania, added the latest version of Q-STEP customs module as an IT solution.
     Litcargus UAB operates in two main airports of the country providing passenger, ramp, and cargo handling services for airlines, such as Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, SAS, airBaltic, Estonian Air, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Utair, Ryanair, and others.
     Indeed, Mr. Darius Spetyla, the director of cargo terminal of Litcargus UAB is both impressed and animated—an online solution created and developed in the Baltic States fits the bill for Litcargus.
     “All operations starting from acceptance of the cargo until final delivery are handled without any paper documents involved, as we have moved our operations up to world class capabilities with the Q-STEP solution.
     “An example of Q-STEP’s customer-friendly features is allowing freight forwarders [the] capability to send FWB/FHL messages to airlines via the Q-STEP intranet user interface.”
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Geoffrey