Survey Shows Increase in Electronic Shipment Management

Enterprise Networks & Servers, Oct 2004

Unisys-operated Cargo Events Portal Services (CPS), an electronic booking and shipment management service, has completed its second annual Chicken & Egg Survey to assess the current views on electronic booking in the air cargo industry from freight forwarders - the key logistics providers for international shipping.

The survey title refers to the mutual need for both forwarders and airlines to use online services for booking, although each party generally expects the other to take the initial step. Analysis of the survey's findings indicate that respondents expect a nearly 20 percent increase in online bookings by mid-2005.

More than 500 individuals completed the survey on www.cargoportalservices.com in May, June and July of this year. The overall survey results demonstrate the strong desire by forwarders to have many more carriers join online portals.

British Airways, Lufthansa and American Airlines lead the group of requested carriers The survey asked respondents to choose which top 50 global air cargo carriers they would use to book their shipments via CPS if those carriers joined the service. Fifty-five percent of the participants chose British Airways, followed by Lufthansa (54 percent), and American Airlines (48 percent).

Other carriers that were frequently requested included Continental Airlines (45 percent), Delta Airlines (44 percent) and Cathay Pacific (41 percent). The individual carrier percentages reflect the mainly North American responses to this survey. As usage of CPS is evenly balanced across the world, it may be reasonable to expect similarly high interest for all major carriers in the markets that they serve.

One of the survey's key findings indicates the importance of conducting business electronically versus using fax and phone shipping. Three-quarters of the respondents said that the ability to book shipments through the Web is very important and 87 percent said that it is important or very important for them to be able to see and manage their bookings online. In addition, more than 75 percent feel that the industry-developed Cargo 2000 shipment quality tracking standards are a valuable part of the electronic business package.

The respondents also shared the percentage of shipments that they electronically book now via carriers at their location and how many they plan to book this way in 2005. Today 40 percent of respondents are booking more than a quarter of their shipments electronically. They expect to substantially increase this with a full 60 percent expecting to be doing the majority of their : bookings electronically by mid-2005.

"It is especially encouraging that freight forwarders and airlines today are realizing the benefits of doing business electronically and that they expect to increase this activity in the future," said Christopher Shawdon, vice president, Logistics Solutions, Unisys. "This is a key development in the air logistics industry continuing to provide more efficient services to its customers."