Cargo Airships Are Happening

Maybe a smaller issue than wind, but something is wrong with this claim:

"If you can pick up goods directly from a customer on one side and deliver them directly to a customer on the other..."

How do you handle customs inspections and duties on imports? As TFA states, in current air freight, "there is a trucking company, a warehouse, a customs broker..." Freight has to go through the warehouse on arrival in-country so the customs inspectors can look at it and assess duties. The article seems to envision the airship dropping down directly at the destination address, which would be that nation's customs agency's worst nightmare.

Yeah--I came here to highlight this too. I think all the legacy systems around international shipping won't permit direct to consumer pick up and delivery. Unless someone can show me an existing example?

> How do you handle customs inspections and duties on imports?

Probably no different from private airfields, you have to file customs paperwork before arriving, and they can send inspectors out.

Some international logistics businesses pickup from and ship directly to customers. They are well-practiced in avoiding customs delays and have extensive experience with non-traditional transport, such as semi-submursibles.

Seriously, if a Toyota supplier in Japan delivers parts daily to a factory in Ohio, do they go through regular customs or is there some other arrangement? Can they fly directly to an airfield near the factory?

Also the customs exist at both ends. Usually, you have to do preliminary enforcement too. That’s what DHL does at least. Still, most of your time “wastage” will happen at customs and there is no technological innovation for that. There is no way any (or most) governments will allow you to by pass them.

That feels like a different scenario. Intuitively I would expect some pre-arranged clearance process that is valid for some period to avoid say daily paperwork lodging. Even the inspection process could be streamlined if there's some trust between the authorities and the regularly shipping parties.

It still doesn't address the case where a random small business receives a container full of their latest items from a supplier.

The first thing I funnily thought of with direct-to-customer was narcotics. If countries don't inspect goods coming in (assuming that countries with a risk of narcotics being shipped out have already lost), then it makes for a great muling opportunity, or just wholesale shipment.

The facts parts are sent and delivered daily doesn't mean they travel in 1 day.

Frequency != latency

It's down to the laws of the country and the government could make an exception to go direct if they want for special items. One of the things the airships might make sense for is huge wind turbine blades that are too large to go by road. The government might well do it for that kind of thing.

But for regular freight I doubt it. I use to fly from England to France in a single engine plane, pre Brexit, and you might think just stick stuff in the plane in an airfield in the UK, fly to a field in France drop it off, vive the single market and that. But no you have to fly to a customs airport in the UK, queue up with your passport as usual, do the same in France then fly on to your field. Probably France to Germany say would be ok. It all depends on the local laws.

In the U.S., a shipping company that is also a registered “Importer/Exporter of Record” can move stuff directly.

I ran a tugboat business and we had all of the required paperwork to file directly with U.S. Customs.

In many cases, we moved cargo too big to be transferred at a port or terminal.

Also how many hours you save compared to truck/van? You still have to load it to one to drive it to where ever airship is moored, and then unload it, load to airship. Fly that to destination(weather depending). And same. Or you could drive from start to end. At certain distances it might make sense, but I think those might be somewhat limited.

Not sure how realistic, but could the inspectors go to the airship instead? They are not planes: Not only can they "park" while airborne, but at least there were concepts of boarding/unboarding in the air as well: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/realestate/26scapes.html

Not quite how it works. (At least, not in the US).

Firstly, not just any FBO is a point of entry.

Which brings us to the second point, the entire reason for designated points of entry is so that the customs officials can be on site already. As in, assigned to that FBO. Now at times specialists have to be sent out. (Think exotic or rare animals or biological/agricultural products.) But if that happens, your freight, and maybe even you, are quarantined and your freight isn't going anywhere any time soon. Believe me.

Most important, and relevant in this context is the third issue. Which is the fact that arrivals are met by customs officials and passengers and cargo are always subject to the same inspections/regulations as they are at any commercial airport.

So the original question is valid, how are they handling customs at the scale they're hoping to achieve in a fashion any faster than anyone else?

FBO = fixed base operator = private jet terminal or service provider at airports that caters to general aviation (non-commercial) flights. FBOs provide services like fueling, hangar space, and sometimes even customs clearance for international flights.

They could in theory but I'm dubious governments will be willing to shape their customs enforcement to accommodate this company. Best case I think they might be able to do a drop off at a place for customs inspections and pick them up again with a different craft once cleared.

So they build operate their own airship FBOs? Honestly seems like the smaller hurdle to jump if all the engineering problems are solved, they will find a way to navigate this too. It’s a bit naive to assume they will comply with existing constraints versus defining what the airship industry would need. They won’t roll this out globally on day one, the largest and most obviously profitable areas will be source/destinations are probably easy to guess. They could even do their proof of concept it less regulated markets before coming to the US later. Plenty of room to solve these problems later.

I bet they would change their workflow if it was an Amazon warehouse. Amazon could change the rules in DC.Accomodate for certain size warehouses.

Is that really so different from how customs officers go on board trains now?

I agree with most other criticisms in the thread about the feasibility of this, but your suggestion is not _totally_ crazy. There are airports where you can land _if_ you give customs a heads up that you'll be flying there from abroad and they'll send a dude. The only one I've interacted with is in the Bahamas but I don't see any reason it's a showstopper. There're a lot bigger showstoppers on the critical path for this project than that.

That sounds expensive.

  > I ran a tugboat business

Wildly OT, but this company and informed discussion is what kept me on /. and keeps me on HN.

That's a chicken and egg problem. You have to get big enough to move enough cargo to make it worth getting special accommodations or go through the paperwork of being a proper import/export business to self report.

There are a limited number of rail crossings they need to work with and it's conveniently on the ground. This company is pitching direct shipper to receiver deliveries via air so getting agents onto the ships is a lot harder and the company wants to drop off directly at customers all over the country meaning no proper port of entry. There are ways to do that but they're regulated as import/export businesses.

Rail lines go all over the country but they check when you cross even if that’s not your destination. I would expect the same to be true here: e.g. an airship leaving Mexico would go to, say, Riverside via a customs stop in San Diego or Calexico.

They don't in Turkey, they just force everyone to deboard.