E-freight - DHL partners with IATA in global initiative to streamline airfreight processes

DHL Global Forwarding is once again taking the lead by partnering with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in its global e-freight campaign. Intended to take the paper out of air cargo, e-freight will continuously reduce the number of paper documents that DHL Global Forwarding has to handle with every air cargo shipment. Of the 30 documents required, 16 are currently being replaced by electronic messages and the number will rise to 20 by 2010. Airlines will benefit considerably from this simplification.   

DHL Global Forwarding handles more than a third of all international forwarder-issued e-freight shipments worldwide and introduced e-freight shipments already in 21 countries, covering 108 Airport locations. This shows the company's strong commitment to this important industry initiative that will drastically reduce the paper trail and speed up transit times of airfreight shipments. E-freight allows a shipment to be created by the manufacturer, transmitted to DHL Global Forwarding via EDI, processed, transmitted to the air carrier, to destination operations and to customs authorities, de-consolidated and cleared for delivery in a secure electronic environment, without the need to produce a single piece of paper.

Despite the current downturn in global shipping activity, DHL Global Forwarding has invested considerable knowledge, manpower and monetary resources to be ahead of the learning curve. "This is a future-oriented project," Michael Schaecher, Global Head Air Freight DHL Global Forwarding, explains. "We are fully aware that in five to six years' time the airfreight business will be very different from today, with electronic messages replacing the multiple handling of documents.  E-freight offers major advantages for our organization, our service partners, our highly valued customers and, last but not least, the environment."

Substantial steps

Benefits of the initiative include lower costs, faster service with reduced cycle times of 24 hours on average, greater reliability and accuracy due to one-time data entry at the point of origin and much better visibility in the online track on account of electronic documentation, which allows for online track and trace functionality. It also protects the environment by eliminating more than 7,800 tons of paper documents worldwide - the equivalent of eighty Boeing 747 freighters per year. This will allow DHL Global Forwarding, which has already taken substantial steps to reduce its carbon footprint as part of the Deutsche Post DHL GoGreen initiative, to further deliver on its environmental commitments.

"The International Air Transport Association welcomes the willingness of DHL Global Forwarding, as the market leader, to fully embrace and contribute to the success of this groundbreaking initiative", says Aleks Popovich, Senior Vice President Industry Distribution and Financial Services, IATA. IATA is an international airline industry trade group based in Montreal, Canada. Representing over 230 airlines comprising 93% of scheduled international air traffic, its mission is to represent, lead and serve the airline industry.