With 30 years of experience in the sector, Lluc Navarro has been the new head of EccoFreight's air cargo department since March 15.
During his career, Lluc has worked in very relevant companies within the logistics and transportation sector and, in all of them, he has been in charge of the air cargo department. In fact, on several occasions he has been responsible for developing this area of business within the companies practically from scratch, which is why he has become part of the EccoFreight team.
In its 10 years of history, the freight forwarder has become strong in the maritime and project cargo sector but, on the other hand, in the air sector it was limited to meeting the requirements of its clients, in a reactive and not proactive way.
For some time now, the company has set the goal of changing the direction of the air department. Therefore, in search of the person to lead this change, they found Navarro, who is already responsible for the airline and in charge of laying the foundations to meet the company's growth objectives.
“The focus right now is to develop the department. That is, not simply providing service to what they ask of us, but looking for new opportunities and new clients," explains its manager, who details that the way to carry it out is through a commercial strategy, through which to make oneself known in the different agent networks in which EccoFreight participates.
Of all the networks, the company wants to focus on publicizing its air cargo services in Lognet Global, a network of international freight forwarders. “It is a network that I know very well because I have worked in other companies in the sector and it is the one we want to develop first. But we will also do it in others through trips and visits to other agents,” explains Navarro.
In addition to this first objective, the company also wants to be a benchmark in air cargo services for the pharmaceutical and food sectors.
In this sense, the head of the air department points out that before his arrival EccoFreight already had all the necessary tools to service cargo but, on the other hand, to be able to enter the pharmaceutical sector it needed to have the Good Distribution Practices (GDP) certificate. ). “For this type of load it is essential to have the GDP because otherwise the laboratories or companies that work with this sector will not give you transportation because you do not meet the requirements,” Navarro points out.
Apart from this, the freight forwarder also wants to develop its air services in the food sector. “In air export there are two needs. On the one hand, those products that, because they are perishable, have no choice but to transport by plane and, on the other hand, those that due to an emergency do not arrive in time by another means. For these reasons, air transport of food is in high demand, which is why it is one of the areas we want to develop,” Navarro emphasizes.
EccoFreight will give priority to those airlines that use the SAF
In the field of sustainability and digitalization, EccoFreight is a pioneer. Within this new era of the air cargo department, the company is digitizing all its processes to avoid the use of paper and, in addition, will continue to use its Ecologistics 360 platform to calculate the carbon footprint of each shipment.
Likewise, Navarro explains that the idea is to work with airlines that use sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), although, he points out, “its use is not yet widespread.”
Renewable
At a general level, EccoFreight has also set the goal of growing within the renewable energy project cargo sector, in wind and solar.
“We already have significant experience in this type of transport, which supports us, and we are very focused on this objective,” point out the company, which invoiced 95 million euros in 2022 as a result of the increase in freight rates.
Looking ahead to the coming months, EccoFreight plans to reduce its billing due to the stabilization of freight rates, although it predicts a greater profit margin.
Likewise, the company continues to focus on innovation to provide sustainability to transportation and continues to promote the digitalization of processes and their optimization.
The head of the air cargo department at EccoFreight, Lluc Navarro, considers that one of the main problems in the air sector in Spain is the lack of efficiency of the handling companies.
“The concessions made to handling are what they are, but we must rethink what level of control is exercised by the authority that grants them once given,” says Navarro, who points out, as an example, that in perishable products there is no the cold chain is taken care of. "The demands of perishable exporters are very high, especially in terms of breaking the cold chain, and if we go to the Barajas airport or Barcelona airport, we see that the level is very low."
Likewise, Navarro advocates for greater coordination between airlines and handling facilities to avoid the collapse of the chamber's capacity and points out the need to expand the air cargo center, in terms of connectivity, parking and services.
On the other hand, it also urges the optimization of the customs and inspection service with the expansion of personnel and work tools.