An introduction to e-Freight
What is e-Freight?
The IATA e-Freight project aims to take the paper out of air cargo. Today the air cargo industry still relies on paper based processes to support the movement of freight. The average airfreight shipment generates up to 30 different paper documents – increasing the cost of airfreight and lengthening transport times. IATA e-Freight replaces 20 of these documents with electronic messages.
Facilitated by IATA, the project is an industry-wide initiative involving carriers, freight forwarders, ground handlers, shippers and customs authorities. SkyTeam Cargo is one of the leading global alliances in e-Freight development.
What are the benefits?
We at SkyTeam Cargo believe that e-Freight is the future. It offers many benefits, especially important in the current difficult climate for the air freight business.
• Lower costs: the total air freight industry can save up to US$4.9 billion per year.
• Faster supply chain transit times: the ability to send shipment documentation before the cargo itself can reduce the industry cycle time.
• Greater accuracy: allowing one time electronic data entry at point of origin reduces delays to shipments due to inaccurate or inconsistent data entry. Electronic documents are less likely to be misplaced, so shipments will no longer be delayed because of missing documentation. This will improve our C2K quality.
• Regulatory compliance: e-Freight meets all international and local regulations relating to the provision of electronic documents and data required by customs, civil aviation and other regulatory authorities.
• Increased security: electronic documents are only made available to parties who require them for the completion of a shipment.
• Environmentally friendly: e-Freight will eliminate more than 7,800 tons of paper documents, the equivalent of 80 Boeing 747 freighters.
This will also lead to weight reduction on board, which in its turn leads to less CO2 emission.
How does it work and what is needed to be e-Freight enabled?
E-Freight may sound difficult, but it is really easy. It fits within our existing tools and processes. Here you’ll learn what the e-Freight terms mean, and you’ll find what needs to be in place for the forwarder and the Sales, CS and Operations teams to develop e-Freight.
Download the brochure in English