From booking to delivery – how technology is transforming air freight operations

The global surge in ecommerce continues to drive unprecedented demand for air cargo, particularly from regions like China, where trans-Pacific air freight rates remain high.

According to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data, over 2.5 million low-value, de minimis shipments arrive at their facilities daily, highlighting the immense scale of ecommerce demand. This trend extends across EMEA and South Asia, as importers increasingly turn to air freight to bypass disruptions in other transport routes.

However, alongside these opportunities, forwarders face intensified scrutiny from government agencies and must delicately balance managing these large volumes with speed and accuracy. Coordinating stakeholders, ensuring precise compliance with evolving regulations, and maintaining supply chain visibility are complex tasks.

The role of technology in air cargo logistics

To navigate these obstacles and capitalize on new growth opportunities, integrating advanced technology into you air cargo operations is essential. However, adopting a multi-tech stack approach carries risks. It is challenging to drive accuracy and productivity when constrained by a complex array of disparate, costly, or worse - unsecure systems.

Consolidating various functionalities onto a single platform is an effective way to streamline operations, ensure compliance, and boost overall efficiency. Here are three key ways CargoWise optimizes the air freight journey from booking and air waybill execution to customs clearance and shipment tracking:

1. Enhanced booking processes

Traditionally, managing air freight bookings has been challenging due to manual entries, redundant tasks, and fragmented communication channels. Additionally, forwarders often struggle to access sufficient and accurate data in real-time to select the right deal to meet their specific requirements.

CargoWise addresses these challenges by transforming the booking process with real-time, multi-airline search capabilities. This empowers forwarders to swiftly compare airline availability, reduce manual effort, minimize errors, and access dynamic pricing, and real-time transit information. By automating the airline comparison and booking process, forwarders can enhance accuracy and efficiency, ultimately improving customer satisfaction and operational performance.

2. Streamlined regulatory compliance

In a period of heightened global regulations, compliance is non-negotiable yet challenging. Manual tracking of changes is time-consuming and error-prone, exposing forwarders to risks.

CargoWise simplifies compliance by constantly updating its system to reflect the latest global and local requirements. By partnering with global industry bodies like IATA alongside local customs authorities, and supporting initiatives like ONE Record, CargoWise ensures forwarders can adapt quickly to legislative changes, mitigate compliance risks, and optimize operations.

For instance, forwarders must adhere to embargo lists that identify countries with geopolitical instability and other risks. Implementing technology that identifies items posing security threats or subject to strict regulations enables forwarders to handle such cargo more safely and securely.

3. Improved visibility and automation

Forward-thinking logistics companies know that success lies in both monitoring goods and swiftly responding to disruptions. This dual need is crucial in fast-paced environments like air freight.

CargoWise's Air Waybill automation enhances how forwarders manage air waybill and flight status events, providing real-time updates across shipments, declarations, and routing legs. The workflow engine also allows automatic alerts, exceptions, and processes, ensuring more streamlined operations.

CargoWise’s visibility functionality extends further with CargoTracker, providing map-based visualizations of air cargo movements. This allows forwarders to quickly track cargo locations, routes, and key milestones. Alongside the map, forwarders can also access flight statuses, key milestones, consignment details, MAWB numbers, and the number of pieces for each consignment. This monitoring capability remains active even if a shipment changes transport mode. Additionally, all data is standardized and consolidated into a single structure, ensuring accuracy and relevance.

In today’s evolving air cargo logistics landscape, precision, efficiency, and compliance are paramount. CargoWise empowers forwarders to navigate complexities effectively, capitalize on growth opportunities, and maintain competitiveness by leveraging advanced technology to automate processes and consolidate functionalities.