question of the month
The questions are set by members of the Air Logistics China editorial advisory board, but if you have a question you would like answered please send it to us
FELIX KECK managing director, Traxon
“It’s indeed disappointing how slow the adoption of e-Freight procedures has been. But during the International Air Transport Association’s World Cargo Symposium in Istanbul earlier this year we saw promising signs of some individual forwarders ‘grasping the nettle’ and looking to move forward with paper-free cargo processing. Everybody seems to find
reasons why not to start e- Freight processing, but many companies are sick and tired of this mindset and are making strides. While e-Freight may
mean changing procedures that have been in place for many decades for some companies, and it is not easy when other stakeholders in the supply chain remain wedded to paper air waybills and the like, the cost issue of implementation is just an excuse for most. But it has not held back the likes of Cathay moving to
Earlier this year we saw promising signs of some individual forwarders ‘grasping the nettle’
100 percent e-AWB processing out of Hong Kong, for example, or other major carriers seeking to gain a qualitative advantage through e-Freight.”
OLIVER EVANS chief cargo officer, Swiss International Air Lines
“Swiss has been very active in the e-Freight initiative. We wanted to kick it all off in our home country so after the launch of Zurich we started pilots in Basel and Geneva. We are the first e-country,
with successful pilots at all the international gateways in Switzerland. We see it as our
responsibility as the national carrier and we firmly believe in the benefits of implementing e-Freight. First and foremost, the
quality of data, which is as important as the quality of physical transportation, is improved. Usually you have several people keying in similar data in several systems and there is the potential for faulty transmission, incomplete data or incorrect information, and e-Freight is the solution. Even with advanced global partners there are instances of messages coming in different formats that are incompatible, or multiple copies of documents coming in. e-Freight benefits everyone across the supply chain –
shippers, forwarders, airlines and so on – and it becomes a more cost-effective process also. But the cost savings are a long-term vision. In the short
term there has to be effort and higher costs. This is a common learning process and we have to work bilaterally in order to improve.”
e-Freight benefits everyone across the supply chain
AIR LOGISTICSCHINA 27
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32