he technology revolution in air cargo has been widely discussed in recent years, with freight forwarders touting easy-to-use Web sites and tracking systems while airlines automate more of their operations and join freight booking portals. No longer is air cargo a paper, pencil and phone business; freight operators not investing in technology are being left behind.

But there's a big gap in cargo's technology movement: the systems of forwarders and airlines are far from coordinated. For all the high tech talk in the cargo business, there's frustration that the industry is still lagging behind other sectors in system integration. For a business based on the fast movement of goods and information, say industry players, the lack of system compatibility can be quite glaring.

The push is on for greater coordination, driven in large part by airlines that view electronic booking as critical to the future. "We all want to see much more e-booking," says Northwest Airlines Cargo President Jim Friedel.

Northwest, the only U.S. combination airline that operates freighters, says 60 percent of its cargo shipments in March were booked electronically. Friedel says the carrier's goal is to get to 80 percent electronic bookings by year's end and over 90 percent by the end of 2006.

"For most forwarders, it's just a matter of getting them to try" booking shipments electronically, says Friedel. "They're usually a little resistant, as most human beings are to new things. But once they try it, they're hooked."

The fact is, forwarders have been slower than many other businesses to embrace advanced technology. Although there has been a major shift in attitude among forwarders regarding technology, forwarding software providers say the industry is still behind as a result of past mindsets that were slow to change.

"The industry has made huge strides, but there's still a main weakness," says Cris Arens, president of Fountainhead International, which produces the popular CargoWise information technology platform for forwarders. "Why can't forwarders communicate electronically with their vendors? The percentage of transactions which are done that way is miniscule, even among large forwarders."

Forwarding is "still an old-school industry in a lot of ways," he says. "It's still a people industry. Forwarders have relationships with vendors and customers. A lot of them are worried that if the industry moves too much towards electronic transactions, they'll lose those relationships.

"Forwarders also have trouble (making the decision) to pay the transition costs to upgrade. … I think it's a mindset in this industry that has changed in the last five years, but there's still a barrier against electronic booking in many cases."

But that barrier may be coming down as airlines such as Northwest insist on more e-booking.

"The carrier has to push it," says Friedel. "We have to work with customers to debug (any problems with e-booking). We're essentially putting our internal system in front of the forwarders, so we need to work closely with them to fix problems and make it work smoothly. There has to be something in this for the forwarders also."

Forwarders say high tech systems are fine - if they actually work. "The forwarder wants integrity of information from carriers," says La Wanda Ray, executive vice president of forwarder Team Worldwide. "If I'm not going to pick up the phone and talk to someone, I need to know the information is accurate."

Friedel says Northwest has made "maybe a 100 or more changes" to its e-booking system based on feedback from forwarders, and plans to continue listening closely to forwarders to make sure its technology solutions work.

If there is going to be a push toward automation, it is most likely going to come through the booking window and carriers say the common booking platforms are the biggest lure toward automation for forwarders.

Northwest is a founding member of Cargo Portal Services, or CPS, an electronic booking shipment management online portal that forwarders can use free of charge. Air Canada, Austrian Airlines, Air France-KLM and United Airlines are also part of CPS, and Continental Airlines is set to join the system this summer.

With American Airlines also expressing an interest in joining, Friedel says forwarders can look forward to a time when "you'll have the bulk of your capacity at one site."

Unlike some earlier attempts at booking modernization, CPS is direct and simple, says Friedel. "There were a few bad projects at the start" of air cargo's modernization movement in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he says. "There were solutions that were more grand and more expensive than they had to be. People were holding their breath waiting for e-commerce to change the business model. There was a lot of wasted time trying to sell directly to shippers."

That may be a jibe at the older rival platform, Global Freight Exchange, but even GF-X is operating with horizons that seem a bit more limited than they were five years ago. With a third portal, Asia-focused Ezycargo, in play, the platforms appear to be settling into something like coexistence and share a common desire to get forwarders more automated.

"People were too ambitious," says Friedel. "They thought they'd rebuild the industry. You had carriers trying to bypass forwarders. The solutions weren't really about e-commerce, they were really about mergers and acquisitions. People weren't looking at simple e-booking solutions. With CPS, we're not trying to transform the business. All we're trying to do is move data between us and forwarders as quickly as possible."

Of course, airlines no longer have the money to sink into the kind of ambitious e-commerce projects that were started during the boom years of the late 1990s. Now e-booking is more about airlines keeping costs down than transforming the cargo business.

"Airlines are in so much trouble (financially) that they have no choice but to move towards e-booking to save on costs," says Arens. "I think what's going to happen is airlines will make it prohibitively expensive to do business any other way than electronically. I see a lot of people being forced to do things that aren't necessarily in their nature."

Whatever the strategies, the attempts to push technology to streamline and modernize the air cargo booking process through Web sites are still in their infancy. And the synchronization of carriers' and forwarders' systems won't be enough, say experts, if the trucking companies doing pickups and delivery don't modernize as well.

"We want to get the information as soon as the trucker knows it so our customer in Hong Kong knows where the shipment is between Nashville and Chicago," says Friedel.

Adds Brandon Fried, chief operating officer at forwarder Adcom Worldwide: "The speed of information is key. We want to know very quickly when a pickup is made. We're competing against the big boys. As soon as FedEx or UPS makes a delivery or pickup, the driver gets back in the truck and keys in the information. We also want our information as quickly as possible from truckers."

Doing that isn't so much about having the most sophisticated systems, says David Hockersmith, president of forwarding software specialist Trans-Soft, but finding technology that can facilitate the flow of information between airlines, forwarders, truckers and shippers. "Information is power," he says. "The lack of continuity is holding the industry back."

Despite the incongruities, says Friedel, a lot of progress is being made. "I'm a lot more bullish than other people in the industry," he says. "I think the industry is further along than most people realize. … I'm not feeling like I'm that disconnected from forwarders. I don't think we're as disconnected as the conventional wisdom says we are.

"That perception is being fostered by carriers. Carriers need to make a new effort to get connected. And if you make that effort, you'll find that forwarders and truckers aren't as resistant as they were five or six years ago."

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Software Solutions

Off-the-shelf software is becoming more prevalent among freight forwarders looking to upgrade to high tech Web sites that feature online booking and tracking. Even the smallest forwarders are becoming technology savvy and many larger forwarders are choosing third-party software instead of staffing expensive, in-house IT departments. Here are some of the key players in the burgeoning forwarding software business:

Trans-Soft: Based in Scottsdale, Ariz., this company led by forwarding industry veteran Dave Hockersmith has been developing its TS2000 Plus freight forwarding software since 1999. The TS2000 aims to automate all aspects of the forwarding business, from tracking shipments to keeping abreast of customers to handling billing and collections. "There's really been a large surge of interest in this kind of technology," says Hockersmith.

Fountainhead International: The Chicago-based company has been developing, marketing and supporting software for freight forwarders since 1995. Its CargoWise solutions are becoming increasingly popular, even among larger forwarders. "We're getting approached by a lot of larger forwarders," says President Cris Arens. "IT is expensive to develop and support in-house. Why reinvent the wheel when there's something off-shelf?"

Freightdata 2000: Based in Orlando in the U.S. and with offices worldwide, the company produces the CargoFind Web-based track and trace system. It boasts that its freight forwarding solutions "maximize the potential of the Windows environment with stored data being available to all your other business systems." Its software is designed cover imports, exports and domestic movements by all modes of transport and produces all relevant documentation.

Centillion Information Systems: This Canadian company produces the Cargo3000 freight forwarding management system, formerly known as Cargo2000. "Cargo3000 is a highly productive, comprehensive and user friendly freight forwarding and export documentation system that allows users to process air, ocean and road shipments in seconds," says Centillion. "The system includes over 80 documents, invoicing and accounts payable processing."

CSA Software: Founded in 1982, the Michigan company produces the Air-Trak system used by UPS Supply Chain Solutions and Pilot Air Freight, among others. The software operates on several different platforms, including Windows, and claims to be the most widely used forwarding software solution on the market. "Whether you have one office or 60, we are confident that you will find the functionality, flexibility and stability of Air-Trak to be a great fit," says CSA.

Magaya: Based in Miami, the software provider produces the Magaya Cargo System, which is aimed at meeting the needs of international freight forwarders and logistics companies. The Cargo System includes "a complete and accurate" warehouse management system combined with a fully integrated accounting system. "It is simplistic in nature in that it is user-friendly with interactive screens thus reducing the amount of work for the user," says Magaya, which furnishes the software in both English and Spanish, with more languages to come.

Riege Software International: The German company offers cross-border software solutions oriented towards the international forwarding and logistics market. Its PROCARS system is fully integrated, "encompassing all aspects of freight movement," says Riege, which was founded in 1985. The company has customers in 30 countries and says its system increases efficiency and reduces costs for global freight operations.

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OAG Goes Forward

One way around the lack of system synchronization, say some technology experts, is the use of Web sites that can make huge volumes of information available to multiple parties.

Airline data provider OAG thinks it has the answer by bringing the European model of Inforwarding.com to major U.S. markets. OAG purchased Inforwarding last year and in March launched an Inforwarding-style Web site for carriers and forwarders operating in Chicago.

"The way carriers communicate is through various methodologies and a forwarder tends to work with multiple carriers that all send information differently," says Mike Zolnierowicz, director of cargo sales for OAG. The Inforwarding Web sites "provide more convenience and flexibility for forwarders and carriers. It's a convenient way to communicate information to forwarders. … We believe it works as a neutral site that will bridge the technology difference between carriers and forwarders."

The Chicago site, to be followed by similar sites for New York and Los Angeles in May, aims to put all airline schedules and rates at a site that is easy to navigate. Airlines can post any other information forwarders may find useful.

Forwarders will have to subscribe, while airlines will pay fees to post information. Zolnierowicz likens the sites to a cargo version of online passenger booking portals such as Travelocity, and will be tailored to the particular needs of the major markets they serve. Overall, there will be seven Inforwarding Web sites in the U.S. by year end.

"Right now you really can't go to one place to look at all airlines' rates and schedules," says Zolnierowicz.

Forwarders will not be able to book directly through the OAG sites, but Zolnierowicz says OAG hopes to link to carrier booking systems in the future. "The key is having a critical mass of information so freight forwarder users don't have to go to five different place to figure out how they're going to ship something," he says.