Strategic Mandate: Revalidating Core Deliverables
- History and Mission: ULD CARE originated as an IATA committee in 1971 and incorporated as a Canadian not-for-profit corporation in 2011. The conference reaffirmed that the acronym CARE stands for Compliance, Airworthiness, Regulation, and Education.
- Revalidation of the Four Pillars: The community reaffirmed its four core foundational deliverables:
- Eliminate waste and improve operational efficiency.
- Manage risk in ULD operations and flight safety.
- Adopt new technologies and practical digital workflows.
- Advance global standardisation across regulatory and operational practices.
- The Implementation Gap: Stakeholders acknowledged that while these deliverables remain valid, execution over the past two decades has lagged. ULDs remain a low corporate priority despite causing $300 million in annual repair and damage costs and ranking as the number one cause of aircraft ground damage. The body resolved that continuing with unexecuted high-level goals is no longer viable, framing the moment as a turning point between professionalised management and closure.
Scope Expansion: The “Push, Pull, or Touch” Ecosystem
- Declining Airline Engagement: Airline participation has diminished as carriers increasingly outsource fleet management to pooling and leasing providers such as Unilode and Jettainer.
- Expanding Membership: ULD CARE MUST broaden its scope beyond traditional airlines to encompass every stakeholder that “pushes, pulls, or touches” ULDs. This includes:
- Ground Handling Agents (GHAs) and cargo terminals.
- Freight forwarders and 3PLs.
- Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) facilities.
- Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and leasing companies.
- Road Feeder Services (RFS) and intermodal trucking partners.
- Dedicated Working Groups: The organisation agreed to establish dedicated operational streams, including an MRO working group to share repair efficiencies, skills, and recycling practices, as well as sub-client groups for pooled carriers.
Frontline Accountability & “Back-to-Basics” Operations
- Root Causes in Human Factors: Industry studies confirm that human error, high turnover, and inadequate frontline training drive the majority of ULD and aircraft damage.
- Competency Over “Tick-Box” Learning: The organisation agreed to look at moving away from superficial online learning management system (LMS) modules in favour of practical, on-site competency checkouts. It is formalising critical role expectations across lead agents, supervisors, and duty managers.
- Public Repair “Hot Spot” Dashboards: Recognizing that damage peaks concentrate at specific airports due to “pass-the-problem” habits across handoffs, ULD CARE will look to publish anonymised repair dashboards to highlight damage trends and locations.
- Accountability Frameworks: The body agreed to examine how to implement operational health checks, explore yellow/red card accountability systems, and reinstate forwarder audit standards modeled after historical industry programs.
Financial Sustainability: Moving Away from “Free of Charge”
- The Financial Challenge: Operating historically as a low-cost, free-of-charge entity has restricted ULD CARE’s capacity to fund programmes, deploy digital tools, and support full-time staff or ambassadors.
- Value-Based Revenue Transition: The organisation board is to review a transition to paid, high-value offerings under a commercial model:
- Tiered Memberships & Subscriptions: Extending structured membership fees across non-airline handlers, forwarders, and logistics providers.
- Operational Health Checks & Audits: Chargeable diagnostic reviews of station operations and forwarder compliance.
- Training Certifications: Commercialised, certified training programmes for ground handlers that airlines can mandate within service level agreements (SLAs).
- OEM Certification Fees: Monetised sustainability and climate labelling schemes providing documented ESG reporting value.
Regulatory & Industry Positioning
- A Bridge, Not a Regulator: Rather than duplicating standards set by IATA or safety regulators (FAA, EASA), ULD CARE will act as the practical conduit. Regulators provide oversight and IATA sets regulations; ULD CARE drives ground-level adoption and channels operational evidence back to influence those standards.
- Neutral Data Clearinghouse: Addressing commercial sensitivities that hinder performance benchmarking, ULD CARE will act as a neutral third party to collect, anonymise, and distribute macro operational data (incident rates, repair trends, spare part usage).
- Executive Framing: The organisation will reframe communications toward corporate safety VPs and sustainability leads, establishing ULD airworthiness as a core safety discipline rather than an isolated ground handling cost.
Official Priority Action Roadmap & Milestones
The conference roadmaps establish the following sequence of deadlines and responsible parties:
Target Date | Action Item / Deliverable | Responsible Party | Source Reference |
30 Sept 2026 | Conduct the “global decisions” workshop to define operational action points. | Tom Pearson & Attendees | |
01 Oct 2026 | Deliver a 2–3 minute high-impact ULD summary message at the closing plenary. | Communications Team / Leadership | ACHC Plenary Session (Completed) |
22 Oct 2026 | Roll out communication campaign driving engagement with online assets (e-UCR, handling guides). | Communications Team | |
31 Oct 2026 | Publish MVP digital workflows and tools. | Owen Martin & AI Digital Team | AI Workshop |
31 Oct 2026 | Initiate airline re-engagement plan and outreach to pooled carriers. | ULD CARE Leadership | |
31 Oct 2026 | Reframe executive messaging to align with corporate safety and sustainability priorities. | Communications Team | |
31 Oct 2026 | Establish outreach to external industry associations to scale joint initiatives. define the associations and identify contacts | Leadership / Kenneth Poon | |
10 Dec 2026 | Compile training standardisation proposals benchmarking FAA AC 120-85. | Training Working Group | |
15 Dec 2026 | Finalise the operational “back-to-basics” training programme. | Training Working Group / Chris Notter | |
15 Dec 2026 | Schedule and structure recurring DCA-inclusive practical operator sessions. | DCA + Event Committee | |
20 Jan 2026 | Publish the first iteration of ULD repair “hot spot” dashboards. | Data & Analytics Team | |
30 Nov 2026 | Document collaboration best practices among airlines, pooling companies, and OEMs. | Standards Committee | |
30 Nov 2026 | Complete the unified “back-to-basics” ground operations protocol list. | Standards Working Group | |
01 Dec 2026 | Deliver the cross-industry ecosystem integration plan across conference tracks. | Cross-Track Coordination Team | |
15 Dec 2026 | Finalise critical role expectations and competency exercise framework. | Training Working Group | |
20 Dec 2026 | Deliver formal assessment report on future financial models and monetization options. | Finance & Strategy Committee |