A pilot was conducted with hundreds of shipments being handled for 30 participating forwarders and two airline groups, Qatar Airways Cargo and IAG Cargo.
Payment for freight remains a hurdle, says Freightos, due to cumbersome processes, time wasted making transfers to multiple partners, and expensive credit guarantees, but its unified system overcomes that.
Zvi Schreiber, CEO of Freightos Group, says, “Freight and payments are foundations of global trade, but both introduce friction. Until today, forwarders booked cargo on one platform and paid on another, which is like shopping on Amazon but paying on PayPal. We aim to digitalize both on one platform, improving how forwarders and carriers interact and providing a better experience for importers and exporters.”
Platform payments are available in the US, Europe, and the UK, with Asia to follow soon, and more airlines will get involved.
Calling integrated payments the natural progression from digital bookings, Guillaume Halleux, Chief Cargo Officer at Qatar Airways Cargo, says, “By unifying payments with bookings, we can provide a more effective and efficient service to a growing base of customers worldwide, safely and securely. As a matter of fact, this technology opens new frontiers to airlines by allowing them to accept bookings from every freight forwarder in a given market without having to set up or maintain a stock of AWB.”
Peter Roberts, Head of Distribution at IAG Cargo, adds, “At IAG Cargo we’re continually looking at ways to drive efficiencies for customers – this partnership is a natural continuation of our work with Freightos and helps to significantly reduce the time it takes for a new customer to book with IAG Cargo safely and securely.”