Freight forwarders are being given a new “digital connectivity” tool enabling them to instantly look up contracted rates, assess capacity, and book cargo on specific flights in real-time, via the its air cargo platform for forwarders.
Freightos WebCargo and Lufthansa Cargo’s application programming interface (API) services was designed to accommodate ecommerce sales which drove a 9% growth in air freight demand in 2017, said Freightos CEO, Zvi Schreiber.
“The irony is that cargo divisions have been lagging so far behind airline passenger divisions for so long,” he said in an interview. “It’s about time shippers can finally catch up in the 21stcentury.”
Lufthansa Cargo and Freightos now enable shippers to instantly view their contracted price online and secure air freight capacity. This will be expanded globally in coming months, beginning with a rollout in major European markets.
Freightos air freight customers, like Röhlig Logistics, are already benefiting from improved visibility, instant booking, and increased data exchange accuracy, said Freightos spokesmen.
In a statement, Global Airfreight Director of Röhlig Logistics Dirk Schneider provides this testimonial:
“The new functionality enables rapid quoting and booking of our shipments. Röhlig Logistics customers benefit as one of the first through improved information flow and handling of their consignments. We are happy that we joined the pilot and look forward to extending this service further within our network.”
While some airlines support cargo eBooking on their own website, the Freightos solution enables hundreds of forwarders to digitally access accurate calculated prices and book capacity within one platform.
In order to provide the optimal customer experience, Lufthansa Cargo has prioritized technology initiatives, like APIs.
“Through Lufthansa Cargo web service, we are driving the digitization of our industry to offer our customers and partners a convenient and fast digital interface to our products and services.”, said Peter Gerber, CEO of Lufthansa Cargo.