The Man Behind Garuda Cargo
Buat Anda yang sering kirim barang atau berbisnis kargo, nama beliau pasti tak asing lagi. Kapan dan bagaimana kargo Garuda bisa beroperasi secara penuh lagi? Mari kita bertanya pada orang tepat!
Joseph Haddad, atau akrab dipanggil Joe, kadang-kadang “Pa Jo” adalah Manager Cargo Garuda Indonesia yang berbasis di Sydney, Australia. Pria berusia 62 tahun ini memiliki tiga anak lelaki tampan, Matthew, James, dan Christopher. Sebagai orang Australia yang bekerja untuk perusahaan ternama milik pemerintah Indonesia, Joe mengaku beberapa hal yang ia sukai ternyata memang berhubungan erat dengan Indonesia. Misalnya, makanan kesukaannya adalah nasi goreng seafood –ciamik!, katanya– dan destinasi liburan favoritnya adalah –jeng, jeng, jeng– Jakarta!
Joe yang hobinya terangkum dalam 1 kata saja, kerja, ini sulit menemukan waktu untuk membaca buku karena dialah yang menjawab surat-surat elektronik yang masuk ke komputernya. Meskipun demikian, Joe pantang mengeluh. Pria yang teguh berprinsip passionate, dependable, dan honest ini pernah mengunjungi Indonesia sebelum ia bekerja untuk Garuda. Kultur, orang-orang Indonesia, dan terutama sejarahnya, menurutnya, mengingatkan dirinya akan latar belakang orangtuanya. Geliat kesibukan kota besar juga salah satu hal yang ia sukai. Tentu saja, Jakarta berada di tempat paling atas. Nah, untuk mengenal profilnya lebih lanjut, Indomedia berbincang dengan Pak Jo. Agar tidak ada kesalahan makna, wawancara tetap diterbitkan dalam bahasa Inggris.
What was your life before joining Garuda?
I have been employed by three airlines in my working life.
Always been in freight … and love it!
What were your considerations to accept Garuda’s vacant position 31 years ago?
Funny story. While working for QF cargo, I applied for a ticket to travel on GA Indonesia
to go on my honeymoon to Jakarta. At that time, the GA Manager offered me a ticket
and a job which was a pleasant surprise and since then I have never looked back.
What’s the first major issue you had to tackle back then? And how did you resolve it?
Back then we didn’t have emails. There was SITA telexes and every morning coming
into work there would be rolls of telexes (about 80 telexes) that I had to step over
while entering the office. And it took about 6 hours a day to organise these manual
telexes and respond. All I can say now is that “Thank god for emails”.
You have served Garuda more than 3 decades now.
What are the challenging and rewarding things you have experienced so far?
I have been with three airlines in my working life — AF (8 years), QF (1.5 years),
GA (31 years). That proves that GA is one of the best airlines in the world.
Yes, there has been many challenges, but as a GA family member I have
always been able to obtain support from my managers and peers.
Tell us about Garuda Cargo and the better benefit a customer can get from it compared to other cargo company.
Working at GA cargo is a major role being in the frontline, as I service over 400 Freight agents that support GA cargo in south west pacific, in addition to assisting the public with their enquiries on freight matters. It’s funny as many people mistakenly class freight/cargo and baggage as one area, whereas baggage is a totally different area. GA provides guaranteed cargo space from Australia to Indonesia. We carry all sorts of commodities
and of late we had carried approx. 50 heads of live cattle over a period of 3 months
from Melbourne to Jakarta. Once the cargo is confirmed on GA cargo myself and staff ensure that all booked cargo is uplifted as per its original booking.
Any added new cargo rules and regulation we should know as customers?
E-commerce has become a large commodity into Indonesia and we have seen shipments increase 3-fold that is being consolidated by many of the GA appointed cargo agents in Australia. We have an open-door policy and all agents are encouraged to trade with Indonesia. There is a number of available services to Jakarta which is our closest trade partner.
In a week, how many times Garuda serve Australia-Indonesia vv route? Which airports in Australia does Garuda serves?
Currently, GA services Sydney/Melbourne/Perth and with the current covid-19 situation
GA has been able to maintain a regular schedule to and from Indonesia. Sydney and Melbourne has 3 flights per week each whereas Perth has 1 flight per week.
As Australia getting better at tackling the pandemic and generally the world as well, is Garuda flight schedule from Indonesia-Australia vv also more frequent? How long will it get to “normal” schedule?
GA adapts well in worldwide situations as I look back on many issues, such as the Gulf War, Volcanic eruptions in Indonesia, etc. GA has overcome these setbacks –we look at these situations as challenges rather than setbacks. And, with time we will overcome this pandemic situation.
Any tips for people who want to do export-import business?
Import/Export sounds difficult but it’s not as long as the supply and demand is available. It’s a challenging but rewarding business. Recently the Indonesian ITPC (Indonesia
Trade Promotion Centre) had an Import/Export seminar about business with Indonesia,
and I certainly encourage anybody that wants to start doing business to look towards Indonesia as a good strong trading partner. [IM]
