Industry: Air cargo terminal and ground handling
Operation: 600 pallets/day, 3 build-up areas, 2 international carriers serviced
Geography: International hub airport
Challenge: Manual pallet measurement causing IATA compliance gaps and dimensional weight revenue leakage
Ground handlers measured assembled pallets with tape measures and entered data by hand into the cargo management system (CMS). A spot audit found 38% of pallet records outside IATA-allowable tolerance. Root causes: height underestimation on irregular loads, rounding down instead of up (required by IATA), and manual keying errors.
The carrier calculated 4.8% understatement of chargeable weight per flight. The terminal faced a contractual penalty clause if compliance did not improve within 90 days.
2 CubiQ DTPS units installed at the two primary build-up area exit lanes. Pallets are driven through at normal forklift speed — no stop, no added workflow step. Each unit captures full envelope dimensions (±5 mm, IATA rounding-up automatic), total weight, pallet barcode, and 4-angle HD photos. Integration to SITA CMS via REST API: AWB record auto-populated within 2 seconds per scan.
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| IATA measurement compliance | 62% | 99.9% |
| Chargeable weight accuracy | −4.8% understated | ±0.08% |
| AWB amendment requests | 34/week | 0.4/week |
| Measurement time added per pallet | 90 seconds | 0 seconds |
| Damage dispute resolution | 9 days avg | 0.8 days avg |
| Ground handler keying errors/shift | 12 | 0 |
The 4.8% chargeable weight recovery generated $218,000/year in additional revenue. The terminal avoided the contract penalty. One carrier has since made CubiQ DTPS a contractual requirement for all its ground handling partners.
Investment: $74,000. Recovery: $218,000/yr. Labor freed: 1.2 FTE.
Payback: 4.1 months.
Contact CubiQ for a DTPS configuration matched to your pallet volume and CMS integration requirements.