A new online service for booking and tracking air cargo made its debut Thursday in Hong Kong.
Freight forwarders can use the new portal, called Ezycargo, to book and track shipments with Cathay Pacific Airways, Japan Airlines, Qantas Airways and Singapore.
The system, developed and operated by Cargo Community Network Singapore Pte. Ltd. and Global Logistics System (HK) Co. Ltd., also known as Traxon Hong Kong, will go online in Singapore in October, Australia in November and Japan in December.
It will be introduced to other markets, including North America and Europe, over the next nine to 12 months, officials said.
Besides booking and tracking shipments. the system will also allow customers to review flight schedules and cargo space availability.
"We had trial runs of the system in Singapore and Hong Kong with selected forwarders over the past few months and we are happy that it has been progressing well," said David Ho, manager of sales and distribution systems for Singapore Airlines Cargo.
The system has a pay-per-use subscription model, he said. "We look forward to more airlines and forwarders signing up soon."
The developers and carriers did not identify participating forwarders.
Ezycargo will compete with the two other major portals, Global Freight Exchange and Cargo Portal Services. GF-X, the first and biggest system, is used by forwarders to book shipments with 15 carriers, most of them based in Europe and the U.S. Despite years of effort, it has failed thus far to recruit any Asian carriers. CPS can be used to book and track shipments with four carriers - Air Canada, Austrian Airlines, Northwest Airlines and United Airlines.
The question for Ezycargo, as well as for GF-X and CPS, is whether they can convince enough forwarders and carriers to use the Internet for transactions instead of phone and fax. The Internet is faster and cheaper, but many forwarders prefer the human contact they get by dealing with carrier sales representatives over the phone.
The Asia-Pacific carriers announced plans to develop the new portal, initially called Air Cargo Exchange, in January. It was originally scheduled for introduction in mid-year, but was delayed by the SARS epidemic.
— By William Armbruster
The Journal of Commerce Online
Reprint permission