QATAR Airways Cargo, IAG Cargo and a group of some 30 freight forwarders have taken part in a WebCargo trial which proffers the first online airfreight e-bookings platform which also allows forwarders to simultaneously book and pay for their airfreight capacity, writes Thelma Etim.
The additional payments feature is already operational in the United States, Europe and the United Kingdom, with plans for it to be disseminated in parts of Asia in the near future, says a statement from WebCargo’s parent company Freightos Group.
“Freight and payments are foundations of global trade, but both introduce friction,” says Zvi Schreiber, Freightos’ chief executive. “Until today, forwarders booked cargo on one platform and paid on another, which is like shopping on Amazon but paying on Paypal,” he stresses.
“We aim to digitalise both on one platform, improving how forwarders and carriers interact and providing a better experience for importers and exporters.”
This development follows findings from the digital disruptor’s second comprehensive survey on the subject of air cargo digitalisation – its first was conducted in 2019 – which discovered that only four per cent of carriers enable payments to be made online.
Meanwhile, the WebCargo platform facilitated more than 100,000 e-bookings in the first quarter of this year, notes the statement.
Guillaume Halleux, chief cargo officer at Qatar Airways Cargo, agrees that integrated payments is a natural progression from digital bookings. “By unifying payments with bookings, we can provide more effective and efficient service to a growing base of customers worldwide, safely and securely,” he notes.
“As a matter of fact, this technology opens new frontiers to airlines by allowing them to accept bookings from every freight forwarder in a given market without having to setup or maintain a stock of airwaybills (AWBs).”
Nirav Gandhi, managing director at UK freight forwarder Spring World, discloses: “Since we started using WebCargo six months ago, our business has increased significantly. It is now our main booking platform. It’s brilliant and a godsend. We are able to place a paid for and confirmed booking in just 10 minutes.”
Meanwhile, Peter Roberts, head of distribution at IAG Cargo, believes this development is an extremely exciting time for the airfreight industry. “We’re continually looking at ways to drive efficiencies for customers and this partnership is a natural continuation of our work with Freightos. It helps to significantly reduce the time it takes for a new customer to book with [us] safely and securely,” he says.
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