CIFFA 2024 Fall Forwarder

24 THE FORWARDER | FALL 2024 IATA Report CIFFA chairs the Canadian Air Cargo Program Joint Council (CACPJC) program, which meets twice per year, with IATA, the International Air Transport Association, serving as Secretariat. This group consists of 6 airline partners and as well as 6 freight forwarders appointed by CIFFA, who discuss IATA Resolutions, CASS (Cargo Accounts Settlement System) and other matters of importance to the industry. During our meeting earlier this year, the following topics were addressed: Amendment to the Certificate Requirements for Dangerous Goods Current IATA Resolutions state that a training course can be defined as: 1) an IATA Dangerous Goods Course, 2) a Member’s course of formal instruction in Dangerous Goods Acceptance, 3) a course of formal instruction in Dangerous Goods Acceptance offered by a training establishment which has been appraised and endorsed by IATA as an Accredited Training School (ATS) and/or Competency-Based Training Assessment (CBTA) Center, 4) a course of formal instruction offered by a training organization or other establishment which has been endorsed, or meets the criteria established by the regulatory authority responsible for Dangerous Goods in the specified country; or 5) the FIATA Dangerous Goods Training Course in Dangerous Goods Acceptance As CIFFA meets the criteria as defined in point 4 above, IATA further requests an endorsement letter from training organizations that the course is approved by the national aviation authority in the specified country or that the course complies with the national aviation regulations of that country to guarantee participants to the Cargo Agency Program continues to gain certification from training centers offering recognized training courses. CIFFA disputes this additional administrative burden placed on the forwarders, which will be discussed further during our next CACPJC meeting this Fall. Working group to review the current Dangerous Goods requirements A working group was established, comprised of 2 airline and 2 Cargo Intermediary CACPJC members, CACPJC Chair and IATA, to review CIFFA proposed changes to the current staffing requirements pertaining to Dangerous Goods requirements. IATA has reviewed the minutes of the meeting and is finalizing a gap- analysis document which it will share with the airlines, CIFFA and the Freight Forwarder members of the group in the coming weeks. Local Consultative Council IATA have adopted changes to create a new governance group, the Local Consultative Council (LCC). This new group will be comprised of equal representation from air carriers and freight forwarders operating in the local CASS. The LCC is an ad-hoc group that would be called upon to provide support and recommendations to the CACPJC as required. Annual fees for existing intermediary branches in Canada IATA advised that currently there is no annual fee applied to branches of IATA Cargo Intermediaries in Canada, while historically, branches of IATA Cargo Intermediaries in other markets are subject to an annual fee. This additional fee, USD15 per each IATA Accredited cargo agent, was to support the global IATA/FIATA/ dialogue process. In order to support this additional fee, CIFFA asked what value the Intermediaries would receive in return for paying the branch fee and highlighted that the head offices receive a free user license for the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations Manual (DGR) and asked if the branches would also receive a free license if the branch fee was implemented. IATA advised that previously branch locations registered did receive access to the DGR manual, but this practice is no longer in place. As a result of no additional benefit being received, CIFFA successfully defeated this request for additional funding.