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ATI messaging application - e-freight

Using messaging to take the paper out of air cargo

Today, the air cargo industry relies almost exclusively on paper-based processes to support the movement of freight, and each air cargo shipment carries with it as many as 30 paper documents - enough to fill 80 Boeing 747 freighters every year.

The long-term vision for the cargo industry is to eliminate the need to produce and transport all paper for all stakeholders. Before the paper can be removed from the transport process, however, e-freight stakeholders must have confidence in the quality of the data in those messages. Today, that confidence does not exist.

There are a number of business, technical, legal and regulatory requirements which need to be met, but perhaps most important are that all the stakeholders must be sure that the electronic Type B or Type X messages which replace paper are both complete and accurate.

As part of its e-freight project1 - an industry-wide initiative involving carriers, freight forwarders, ground handlers, shippers and customs authorities - IATA has launched the e-freight Message Improvement Programme (MIP).

This aims to increase both the quality and the quantity of electronic documents exchanged between supply chain partners, while reducing unnecessary duplicate messages and manual corrections. This will also support the key philosophy of entering data once at source and then sharing this with all partners in the chain.

This programme is starting with a limited number of participants and document types, but will expand to become industry wide. It will enable participants to share learning to resolve common problems and will provide standard, simple measures to track progress. In the first instance, the programme aims to improve data quality and completeness through the sending of monthly messaging reports to IATA.

Key benefits of e-freight are expected to include:

  • Lower costs: industry savings of US$1.2 billion annually
  • Faster service: a reduced cycle time of an average of 24 hours
  • Greater reliability and accuracy: one-time electronic data entry at point of origin
  • Better visibility: electronic documentations allows for online track and trace functionality

Carriers and freight forwarders who participate in the programme - by supplying data to IATA - will be invited to take part in industry workshops to help shape the programme and develop industry best practice.

To find out more about participating in the e-freight Message Improvement Programme, send e-mail to mip@iata.org.

CHAMP & e-freight

SITA subsidiary CHAMP Cargosystems - the world's only IT company solely dedicated to air cargo - is a strategic partner in IATA's e-freight project.


Through its Cargo Community System (CCS) in Atlanta, as well as individual systems for specific cargo carriers, CHAMP already handles the Type B / Type X messaging data interchange between airline customers and the complete non-airline supply chain, including freight forwarders and ground handlers.


As a result, CHAMP is able to generate the reports needed by IATA's Message Improvement Programme, and creates these for those of its customers which sign up for e-freight MIP. Individual airlines then send the monthly reports through to IATA.

 

CHAMP Cargosystems is committed to helping its customers work towards paperless e-freight and e-customs.

Read more

> Dubai first in Middle East to launch IATA e-freight

 

1. See www.iata.org/stbsupportportal/efreight/index.htm for more information

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