Emerging Safety Concerns in Air Cargo Due to E-Commerce Expansion
The burgeoning landscape of e-commerce, alongside the widespread use of lithium battery-powered consumer products, is presenting a novel safety dilemma for the air-cargo sector.
A rising number of small sellers and individual consignors might lack awareness regarding the classification of their shipments as dangerous goods.
A recent white paper from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) underscores that the evolving dynamics of e-commerce represent a significant vulnerability in the cargo supply chain.
With millions of individual parcels traversing networks that connect manufacturers, online marketplaces, fulfilment centres, postal services, freight forwarders, airlines, and end consumers, ensuring the accurate identification and declaration of dangerous goods at their point of origin has become increasingly complex.
It is imperative for e-commerce sellers to initiate product evaluation well before an item is made available for sale.
The report highlights that power banks, replacement batteries, and electronic devices should be thoroughly scrutinized for compliance with dangerous-goods regulations.
Central to these concerns are lithium batteries, which are embedded in a vast array of products—from mobile phones and laptops to power banks, wearable tech, toys, tools, and household appliances.
As these batteries have become ubiquitous, both consumers and small sellers may fail to recognize them as dangerous goods that necessitate stringent transport protocols.
The magnitude of this issue is illustrated by incident data referenced in the white paper, which reveals that over 80 percent of dangerous-goods occurrences reported to IATA during the specified timeframe involved items that were not declared as dangerous.
Lithium batteries emerged as a primary area of concern, with data for the first half of 2025 indicating that undeclared or concealed dangerous items constituted 81 percent of the reported incidents.
In contrast to traditional cargo, which often involves established manufacturers and distributors equipped with dedicated compliance and logistics systems, the e-commerce sphere frequently comprises myriad independent sellers shipping directly to consumers.
The white paper notes that such sellers might operate from residential properties, retail stores, or small warehouses and often do not recognize that their products harbor dangerous goods.
Moreover, they may lack understanding of aviation transport standards or depend on erroneous product descriptions generated by online retail platforms.
This direct-to-consumer model poses significant challenges. As stated in the report, products containing lithium batteries may enter the transportation network labeled simply as ordinary consumer goods, devoid of the necessary identification, declarations, labeling, or preparation.
Source link: Thehindubusinessline.com.
