CEVA has signed up for the International Air Transport Association’s electronic air waybill program (e-AWB) and will pilot the process in Atlanta, New York, London and Frankfurt before expanding the service across its entire network in 2015.
The partnership with IATA makes the company one of the first freight management firms to sign up for the program.
Signing up for the e-AWB is the first step toward paperless air cargo at CEVA.
"This agreement with IATA is an exciting step towards operating in a completely paperless airfreight environment. We believe that by using e-AWB, we will be able to process freight more efficiently, accurately and quickly, while at the same time eliminating the unnecessary use of paper, delivering environmental benefits to CEVA and our customers," Peter Baumgartner, the firm"™s vice president of global air procurement, said in a statement.
The e-AWB is the first stepping stone in IATA"™s e-freight program, a method the agency has been championing for years. Recently, momentum has started to gather, and IATA has been signing up more carriers, airports and freight forwarders into the e-AWB system. IATA"™s goal is to achieve 20-percent acceptance of the e-AWB by the end of the year, a 50-percent acceptance rate by the end of 2014, and it is striving for full implementation by 2015.
In the July issue of American Shipper, Brandon Fried, executive director of the Airforwarders Association, said that the 20-percent goal, while ambitious, will most likely be achieved. He also noted that forwarders and other firms in the air cargo business that don"™t adopt the e-AWB "will put you on the wrong side of history."
