Air freight companies are expected to start using the Internet in a much larger way as the air cargo industry cries out for change driven by technology, says Freightos chief operations officer Victor Ofstein, according to Shipping Gazette.
Mr Ofstein said the air cargo industry is conservative when it comes to technology, although the "potential for impact of technology is huge, particularly in the flow of information between parties."
One key area to transform is the current methods and means of communicating pricing updates and amendments to quotations, after customers revise the parameters of a deal, he said, according to Atlanta area Air Cargo World.
A major problem that freight forwarding companies suffer is the delay in changing quotations. Industry insiders say it could take up to a week to receive a follow-up quote.
"The forwarders are drowning in this swamp of pricing and contract data from the carriers, and all suffer from the same fate, which is the inability to convert that data into meaningful quotes and pass them on to their customers as quickly and as flexibly and as transparently as possible," he said.
"All the while, the customers are getting more and more impatient because customers, let's say as consumers, we're buying everything online and everything is instant."
The Jerusalem technology company wants to address the flow of data from the carriers to the forwarders and then ultimately, to the forwarders' customers.
"I've observed in other industries how the flow of information between parties in a process has become smoother and more efficient, and I think that that's going to happen in a big way in the air cargo industry."
Right now, Mr Ofstein says he sees carriers still emailing PDF files for pricing and contracts to their customers.
"We see that that's certainly a rather inefficient way of communicating pricing updates and amendments," he said.
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