Automated Nomination, the digital station declaration of a forwarder’s involvement in the handling of a shipment, has become the standard for inbound shipments at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, which no longer accepts paper declarations as of the 1st of April 2022. Prior to Automated Nomination, ground handlers at Schiphol Airport would have to wait for the freight to arrive and review the corresponding paperwork before a forwarder could be nominated to handle the shipment.

With Automated Nomination, this process has been completely digitized and now takes place at an earlier stage, prior to the flight landing at the airport. Ground handlers at Schiphol are now informed about incoming shipments much sooner, reducing the time required to process cargo, while the elimination of manual processing has minimized the possibility of human error and shipment mishandling.

“We have been piloting Automated Nomination with growing success since October 2021 and are proud to have now rolled it out officially as a mandatory process at Schiphol Airport,” said David van der Meer, Cargo Partnerships Director for the Smart Cargo Mainport Program (SCMP), Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.

“We aim to have every shipment nominated automatically, which offers benefits for every stakeholder in the cargo supply chain. Automated Nomination creates a better connection between the air waybill (AWB) and the receiving forwarder.”

Automated Nomination will also optimize import planning and fuel future developments at Schiphol, as better data will be available sooner.

“Literally every part of the cargo chain will benefit from Automated Nomination,” said Luc Scheidel, SCMP Program Manager, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.

“We expect all of our cargo partners to be pleased that we’ve made it a mandatory process as of 1st April 2022, and in particular with the operational efficiencies they will gain as a result.”