Airport Cargo Pickup and Delivery

The Ground Side of Air Cargo

Comet is a trucking carrier, not an airline, and this service sits entirely on the ground. Comet recovers cargo that has already flown and delivers it by road, and it picks up outbound freight and brings it to the airline's cargo terminal before the cutoff. The flying is the airline's job, and the drive between the airport and your dock is Comet's. Those two ground legs, one at each end of a flight, are the whole of the service.

That distinction matters because the ground leg is where air cargo most often stalls. Cargo that crossed an ocean overnight can sit at the terminal for a day waiting on a carrier that never planned around the flight schedule or the release times. A truck that treats the airport as one more stop on a route arrives when the route gets there, which is rarely when the cargo is ready.

Recovering Cargo the Moment It Is Released

Air cargo is expensive to leave sitting. Once a shipment clears the airline and is available for pickup, the terminal's storage clock starts, and freight held too long can rack up fees that dwarf the cost of the trucking. Comet works the release times at MIA, MCO, and FLL and positions a truck to recover freight as soon as it is ready, so the shipment moves instead of accruing charges on the terminal floor.

For time-critical freight, the recovery runs as expedited shipping on a dedicated truck, straight from the airport to the destination without a stop in between. Freight needed today is not waiting for a route to come around, and freight needed tomorrow is not paying another night of storage at the terminal.

Outbound Freight That Has to Make the Flight

Recovery is only one direction. Plenty of shippers need freight delivered to the airline's cargo terminal in time to make a specific flight, and airlines set hard cutoff times for tendering cargo. Miss the cutoff and the shipment rolls to the next flight, which can mean a full day lost. Comet picks up outbound freight and delivers it to the cargo terminal ahead of the cutoff, planning the run around the tender time rather than treating it like an ordinary delivery.

Planning around a tender time means working backward. The pickup is set from the cutoff, with room for the drive, the time of day, and the wait that can build at a cargo terminal's receiving dock. A shipment that leaves your dock with that margin built in arrives with time to spare, and for freight that has to be on a particular flight, that timing is the whole job.

Bonded Cargo and Customs Holds

A large share of air cargo arrives from overseas and stays in bond until customs releases it. Comet is a US Customs bonded carrier, so it can recover in-bond air cargo and move it under seal to a bonded warehouse or a customs facility, which keeps international freight moving through the clearance process instead of stalling at the airport.

If a shipment is held for inspection or paperwork, having one carrier that can handle the bonded move keeps the ground leg from becoming the bottleneck. The in-bond paperwork travels with the cargo, and each move is reconciled against the bond before the file closes, so the freight reaches the bonded facility with documents that match it. Once the cargo is released, the same carrier can take it the rest of the way.

Dedicated Trucks and Credentialed Drivers

Airport cargo areas are secure zones, and moving freight through them takes the right credentials and the right equipment. Drivers on Comet's airport runs carry TSA certification, the credential required to handle freight in secure areas of an airport, and TWIC carded drivers cover any leg that touches a seaport. A driver without the right credentials loses hours at the gate, which is exactly where an unprepared carrier falls behind.

Every recovery runs on a dedicated truck: the truck carries your shipment and no one else's, so the cargo goes straight through on your timing. Comet handles the move as a single carrier, which means the cargo is not handed off to another company between the airport and the door.