Company Background
Hactl stand for Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited, which was
found by 1971 and it was a monopolistic industry before 1998. With other
competitors joined the industry, Hactl’s market share had been eroded, but it
is still a main operator of Hong Kong Air Freight Industry. According to the
introduction of presenter of Hactl, it had a steady increase each year for its
throughput, for the recent year recorded 4M metric ton.
Visit
Outline
The visit was really
interesting and informative. With a several layers introduction of Hactl, to
start with answering our questions prepared before, presenter was very patient
to elaborate our questions. And, we also got more deeper understanding by the
video played by presenter. The most exciting part was visiting the actual
routine operation of Hactl. It really made us very impressive about the fully
automation of loading process. It is an unforgettable memory to have this
visit, and we took a group photo after finishing it.
Supply Chain Aspects
We believe that transportation is a vital
part of supply chain activities. And, Hactl really play a good role in this
position. For its infrastructure, capability and size, it had been a no.1 in
the world, especially for its astonishing throughput. With its increasingly
competitive environment, it faces much challenge such as the increased cost of
fuel, policy and competitor entry. However, it can foresee that the prospect of
supply chain industry is quite good. With the infrastructure project such as Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge and the third runway, it
would bring a positive effect to Hactl keeping its competitive position in the
world.
Learnings from the Visit
After this visit, I felt
interested in this industry, because logistic is not as boring as I think and
it is really interesting. Each department had its unique job such as loading
cargos, monitoring and dealing with customer. Each job is meaningful and need
to cooperate each other to finish the job. Therefore, it inspired me to keep
exploring more information about it and I also got acknowledged that the
prospect of this industry would be booming. Therefore, I suggest who have
interest about this industry can come to join Hactl this great family.
Q&A
during the Visit
1.
In case of facing extreme weather problem, what is the contingency plan of Hactl?
Since the main customer of Hactl is the
Airline of Hong Kong, the nature of job would be taking care of loading goods.
Therefore, if it face extreme weather problem, they would put effort forth on
making an appropriate arrangement on manpower. For example, the roster of
worker would be made a little change for ensuring having a enough manpower to
handling the job once the extreme weather were pass.
2.
Nowadays, the global warming is a hot issue. What is Hactl doing to reduce its carbon
footprint?
Dealing with the issue of environmental
protection is a quite hard job. And, Hactl has been working on this since long
time ago. They have been proceeding with several facets including
Recycling packaging materials: After
consolidating the cargos, it need to package with wrapping paper or other
plastic covering paper to end up the loading process. Since the plastic
materials have greater durability against breakage, Hactl will recycle it many
times until it is damage.
Using bio-fuel: a part of fork lift truck
will use bio-fuel.
Constructing charging station: Some vehicles
used by Hactl are hybrid car which is pushed by electric power.
Adopting E-Freight: In order to reduce the usage
of paper, they will make use of electrical devices to carry out freight.
3.
Hactl had no competitor in the past. How has Hactl formulated its strategy as they
are no longer the monopoly to the market?
After Cathy Pacific has been a competitor
instead of a customer, there are much resources of Hactl available and ready to
make use of the resources to deal with new business. Therefore, on another
angle, Hactl became more competitive. The new business is including the one-stop
service for transportation. They will have their own truck team to take care of
the land transportation.
4.
One of the core values of Hactl is the logistic support between Hong Kong and mainland
china. What is the logistic support of Hactl right now and how will they
continuing improve this core value?
Hactl has its subsidiary “Hacis” which
provide the service SuperLink China Direct to meet the growing demand for
seamless cargo connectivity between Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta (PRD).
They handle a variety of cargoes including pharmaceutical products which needs
a special temperature-controlled devices to maintain its quality.
5.
As the infrastructure and carrier are getting depreciated, is the cost of
maintenance a heavy burden for your company?
Hactl put more resource to develop the
high-end standard of infrastructure such as the automation of freight station
which is well-recognized in the world. They also highly rely on the system, so
their department of engineering will maintain it in their routine operation to
prevent from breaking down of system.
6.
Training is important in the cargo industry as mistake is unacceptable, what major
practices did you provide to your workers?
Also, they have the license of training for
internal and external. The internal one is for the advancement of employee’s
skills and the external one is opened for outside companies. The types of
training are including the treatment of dangerous goods and the inventory
management.
Most importantly, the experts of different
disciplines take part in the value chain to push Hactl to be the most
professional logistic company in Hong Kong or the world.
7.
Commitment on service standards is increasingly important for the air cargo industry,
especially security issues, which refers to the safety of the goods in transit,
since it affects the inventory level and stock out costs. How do Hactl improve
the service performance with safety measure?
Some customer such as local banks request for
us to collect the money or cash which has been outflowed for some transaction
conducted before. It would be necessary to put more focus on the security
issues. Hactl has enough facilities such as more than 1000 CCTV built in the
Hactl and security center for monitoring the conditions of cargos. Moreover,
for dealing with the cargo mishandling, Hactl could track the record of vehicle
with the CCTV and the security centre could coordinate the different unit to
handle this type of mistake, so it really enhance their effectiveness and
efficiency of communication.
On the order hand, for improving the service
performance, Hactl will reinforce the security measures such as outsourcing
airport security service, which aims to gain an access to the service provided
by third-party to ensure the integrity.
8.
Hong Kong government has made continuous investments in terminals and operating
infrastructure in order to boost the handling capacity of HKIA. How do Hactl
catch this kind of business opportunities to generate more revenue on air cargo
terminal operations?
The proposal of third runway development was
really insightful that help relieve much pressure of the airport throughput.
And so, it can contain more airlines to join Hong Kong Airport. It would be new
business opportunity for Hactl. The development of Zhuhai Macau Hong Kong
Bridge would increase more traffic flow between these three places. Hong Kong
as a trade hub would be given more chance to do business with mainland.
Therefore, it is beneficial for the logistic industry.
9.
It is the fact that the competition between Hong Kong airport and other
mainland airport is getting fierce. Is air transportation industry still
profitable now? What is the future outlook of Hong Kong air transportation
industry?
According to the figures given by Airport
Authority Hong Kong, there was a steady increase each year for the throughput
of freight. Besides, the new strategy adopted by Hactl will put more resources
to develop the business of entrepot instead of export and import. Since most of
country cannot directly freight such as Vietnam to Europe, entrepot will be the
new opportunity to expand business.
10.
What is the policy or strategy of HACTL in the area of CSR? How do HACTL
contribute to the community and being a sustainable responsible business?
Since each customer from worldwide have
different demand for service, so the policy and measure will be flexible to
deal with the situations and the service would be customized to each customer.
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