from the elimination of multiple data
entries, while regulatory authorities concerned with security would have faster
access to more accurate shipment information, IATA reckoned.
The next year, the group laid the
groundwork for what would become an e-air waybill, or “e-AWB,” replacing the
paper air waybill—the most vital document in the chain—with an EDI-based
digital agreement between forwarder and
carrier.
In April, IATA unveiled a multilateral
electronic airbill regime where a forwarder signs one master agreement that
becomes valid for all IATA-member airlines. Though it will take some time to
establish, it is seen as an improvement
over the traditional bilateral setup
because IATA represents about 240 airlines in 118 countries. Glyn Hughes, the
group’s director of cargo industry management, said in late June that a large
number of airlines and forwarders have
already signed up for the multilateral
program.
In a June presentation, Scott Sangster
and Jan Markill of Descartes Systems
Group LLC, a Canadian firm that
processes 40 percent of the world’s airfreight messages, said e-freight would
become a “great path forward” as long as
it remains flexible, inclusive, and affordable enough to enable collaborative data
management. One piece of good news is
that the cost of technology continues to
come down, they said.
Rich Zablocki, vice president of air
products for Dutch multinational forwarder Ceva Logistics, said e-freight’s
value lies in forcing forwarders and airlines to sharpen the quality and accuracy
of their information exchanges, and to
build the architecture needed to execute
legally binding transactions.
But it won’t be a quick uptake. At the
end of 2012, e-AWB had 6 percent global
penetration on “feasible trade lanes,”
according to IATA, which doesn’t define
what makes a traffic lane feasible. The airlines are targeting 20 percent penetration
by the end of 2013, the group said. IATA
said the “vision” is to reach 100 percent
compliance by 2015.
Paradoxically, the tightening security
regimes that make life difficult today
may get the industry where it ulti-
mately needs to go. That’s because
directives with the force of law have
a way of moving the needle that vol-
untary initiatives don’t. “Security has
made more things happen in the
past seven years than the industry
did on its own for the past 25 years,”
said Ted Braun, a long-time industry
executive and principal in the con-
sultancy Air Cargo Matters.
CULTURAL ROADBLOCKS
According to Hughes, cultural, not
technological, issues have been
