Containers That Don't Bump In The Night

     We sit on a patio at CNS, enjoying a hamburger under the first real high-noon warmth of the sun since we arrived in the vaunted land called “sunny southern California.”
     Even though CNS is over, the day rules and a gathering of cargo people are still going at it, talking up products and service ideas.
     A guy named Peter Ahnert, Director of Business Development for a company called jettainer, produces his card and starts talking about containers.
     All right, so maybe talking containers is a bit long-winded and eye glazing. But for those in the biz, containers have been cool ever since we saw Bill Boesch and Julie Kupersmit (founder of Containair, A JFK pioneer of the form) sitting in a container at a trade show with pencil and paper working to come up with some new design to house specialty shipments Bill had sold to somebody.
     We thought that there must be some excitement to containers after that day.
     “The problem with containers is keeping track of them,” Peter says.
     “For example, Lufthansa Cargo has 19 MD-11 freighters serving a global network and a number of hubs.
     “In addition, the all-cargo carrier markets available lower deck capacity on all flights of the parent company around the world.”
     We get the drift immediately.
     At any given time, an airline has huge numbers of cans in the air and keeping track of an expensive resource item for its cargo business grows with every new destination.
     But rather than surrender to what has been thus far the inevitable elsewhere, a new company was formed called jettainer by TrenStar, Inc. (33%) and Lufthansa Cargo AG (67&) in December 2003.
     Lufthansa Cargo has several subsidiary companies with names presented in lower case type – “time:matters,” “cargo counts” and now, “jettainer.”
     “jettainer is a company that specializes in the management of airfreight containers and pallets – commonly referred to as ULDs – Unit Load Devices.”
     The small team of 26 people is based in Raunheim just outside Frankfurt Airport. They may not be reinventing the wheel, but by combining the practical know-how of a prominent, cost conscious airline with the tremendous IT experience of the other parent company, TrenStar, something really great was created.
     “Already, jettainer is managing and administrating 40,000 units, and aims for 100,000 units in two years.
     “The breakthrough that is making a difference is that jettainer has developed a ground-breaking, robust database and solutions to cover all aspects of the broad field of ULD management,” says Peter Ahnert.
     All right, so maybe a overly detailed explanation is also difficult to follow.
     Suffice it to say, in concert with superior IT, the jettainer system, in a word, works.
Think about it.
     Why else would operators like Swiss, US Airways, Ocean Airlines and of course, Lufthansa Cargo (just to mention a few) trust their unit-fleet to these guys?
     Peter Ahnert slips into sales explanation overdrive as the hamburgers disappear.
     “jettainer is an innovative company, providing a dedicated ‘one-stop shopping’ solution for all ULD-related matters.
     “Being a customer-driven provider of ULD management services, we offer the most comprehensive outsourced solution for the airline industry that efficiently tracks and manages ULDs as they travel around the world.
     “Outsourcing to jettainer will generate quantifiable benefits for airlines through advanced technology, highly efficient operations and economies of scale.
     “We are breaking the ground barrier,” Peter Ahnert says.
     We say our goodbyes and are glad to share a ride to the airport with some retired folks taking a cruise to Alaska and quick to talk about the slot machines aboard ship,while e peer out a window enjoying the scenery of downtown San Diego.
     No wayward containers, either.
www.jettainer.com or info@jettainer.com
Geoffrey