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News / 'Healthy' war of words between forwarders and airlines keeps e-freight agenda alive

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Wrangling between airlines and forwarders over the thorny subject of e-freight is “healthy” and good for the industry, according to Glyn Hughes, global head of cargo for IATA.

He was speaking on the sidelines of FIATA’s World Congress in Istanbul last week as forwarders fought back over accusations that they continue to stymie the industry’s progress.

“There is a perception that forwarders are the stumbling block, but airlines all have different standards and have not got their own houses in order,” argued ...

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  • Dave Ambridge

    October 22, 2014 at 7:01 am

    It’s very true that legacy systems keep holding us back time and time and time again in this Industry. Yes we need XML for sure but we need E-AWB even more than we need XML. CIMP may not be perfect but it has looked after us in various versions now for over 25 years and it still works today. Yes Airlines use different versions of the same message because of legacy systems but just remember that some will not accept XML messages at all right now!

    If Agents are concerned about inaccuracy of data then they should get focused on that as it is them who provides the data to the Airlines and then on to the GHA’s for use and transmittal. How do we know the data is inaccurate anyway if we have no PAPER document to audit the data against?

    I think it is dreamland to expect that every single purpose in this Industry will use 1 IT Provider or 1 Data provider. Who would decide who this should be? There goes another 5 years of argument and debate.

    Agents have been using electronic data within their own businesses for decades already so this really is not new is it?

    If we all got focused we could move forward.

    If more Airlines adopted E-AWB as the ONLY method we could move forward. Those who get left behind can catch up when they are ready and when they are capable.

    We have THE SINGLE PROCESS in place already and this should be used more and more.

    Let’s make 2015 THE YEAR OF E-AWB!!

    thanks

    • Oliver Evans

      October 22, 2014 at 3:23 pm

      Healthy war of words: yes indeed many words have been said and written on this subject, both sense and nonsense. One hard fact remains: even e-awb implementation is a journey of many steps: if an airline wants to do e-awb with a forwarder, (or vice-versa) you need to find out if they have already signed the multilateral agreement, and if not identify (and motivate) the right person in that organization. Then the agreement needs to be activated, location by location. Only then can e-awbs flow between the parties, but even then staff on both sides have to be identified (and motivated) to make things happen, including verification of local customs and handling processes. The sequence of steps can be accelerated by good leadership on both (all)sides – and happily that is happening more and more hence the now rapidly increasing penetration – but still all these steps must be taken in succession.

  • Alex Lennane

    October 23, 2014 at 9:25 am

    When you put it like that, it’s no wonder this is a slow process…

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