The new IT application, planned for release in the fourth quarter of this year, supports CAS’ commitment to IATA’s e-freight initiative and to a paperless air cargo environment.
With over 3,000 freight forwarders already using CAS’ current ePic online customer service portal every day, the addition of ePic Easy Export will provide the community tool companies need to make an easy transition to e-AWB and eliminate the paper-intensive exchange of information. At present, the average international airfreight shipment can require over 30 different paper documents.
Chuck Zhao, IT Director at CAS, said of the development: “In the US there is no community tool that gives air cargo people an easy transition mechanism to e-AWB. ePic Easy Export will help small-medium sized freight forwarders to transmit FWB and FHL messages and create an environment where creating an e-AWB is quick and easy. Working alongside airlines that share our commitment to e-AWB acceleration, we will use this simple new ePic tool to progress this campaign with the freight forwarding industry. We already have over 3,000 forwarders using the ePic online portal and ePic Easy Export will be made available to all of them,” he says.
Demonstrating CAS’ commitment to a digital revolution, Zhao adds: “e-freight is our vision, eCargo is our practice and e-AWB is an entrance point that heralds the opportunity for the entire air cargo community to push for a paradigm change. ePic is all about removing paperwork as the controlling factor in documentation and the warehouse space. ePic focusses on real-time cargo status. We believe e-freight won’t come to fruition unless the operational processes in the warehouse space are paper free and therefore provide 100% visibility to all the stakeholders – shippers, freight forwarders, customs brokers, trucking companies and so on. With ePic, data is captured once and is available to all whereas a paper-driven operation will never provide 100% visibility as data is lost in paperwork.”
Consolidated Aviation Services is to help 3,000 freight forwarders in the US make the change to electronic air waybill processing with the launch of ePic Easy Export.
