Air France KLM Cargo has become the first airline group to adopt IATA's newly developed Dangerous Goods AutoCheck (DG AutoCheck) for the acceptance of dangerous goods shipments.

“Air France KLM Cargo handle in excess of 1.5 million shipments per year - 173,000 of these shipments require Dangerous Goods handling. DG AutoCheck provides a digital solution to more effectively manage the transport of dangerous goods by air for our customers while at the same time enhancing safety and compliance,” said Marcel de Nooijer, Executive Vice President of Air France KLM Cargo.

DG AutoCheck is a digital solution that facilitates the acceptance of Dangerous Goods by checking the compliance of the Shipper’s Declaration for Dangerous Goods (DGD) against all relevant rules and regulations contained in the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations (DGR). Optical character recognition technology transforms the paper DGD into electronic data.

DG AutoCheck can also receive electronic Shipper’s Declaration for Dangerous Goods (e-DGD). This data is then processed and verified automatically using the digital version of the DGR.

DG AutoCheck also facilitates a ground handler’s or airline’s decision to accept or reject a shipment during the physical inspection stage by providing a pictorial representation of the package with the marking and labelling required for air transport. For example, DG AutoCheck helps DG acceptance staff to check if all prerequisites for acceptance are met on shipments of lithium batteries.