Helping to buy extra minutes in cut-off time
JOY ORLEK
AS THE global airfreight industry increasingly
buys into the concept of a paperless ‘e-freight’
environment, local moves are gaining ground.
The Transit Group has become the first local
consolidator to come on board following the
introduction by South African Airways of an ewaybill.
“We’ve employed five new staff members to
process the information, and see it as a worthwhile
long-term investment,” says managing member
Tim Snell.
“There have been glitches on both sides,
but we’re working through the problems and
see enormous benefits in terms of speed and
accuracy.”
Simply put, the airlines allocate a range of
numbers or the customer requests a number
once the consignment is ready for despatch. The
information is entered and sent to the airline in
advance so that when the freight arrives the airline
is already aware of what is coming and merely
scans it to confirm arrival.
“This is hugely beneficial for the airline which is
able to plan better and we hope that it will enable
us to buy extra minutes in cut-off time which
makes a big difference in the courier industry,” said
Snell.
For airline customers it involves a fair amount
of capital investment in equipment and staff
training, but at the end of the day it falls within
the International Air Transport Association
requirements, says Transit’s Brian Hingley.
“With airlines under pressure to save on costs,
it makes logical sense.”
Iata’s mandate is to introduce e-freight on key
trade routes between five early adopter countries
by 2007 – a process that is already under way
– and to roll out e-freight by 2010 where viable.
According to the association, a typical
international air cargo shipment is accompanied
by up to 38 documents. Across the supply chain it
costs an estimated US$30 per shipment to process
all these documents. The e-freight initiative is
projected to save the industry US$1.2 billion a
year.
