How UPLIFT is pushing Indian Air Cargo industry's sustainability initiatives?
The air cargo industry has witnessed the creation of many Airline-Forwarder-Handler coalitions globally. Usually led by airlines, these groups have attempted to streamline cargo movement by introducing a Logistics Single Window System, which is essentially a shipment booking & tracking platform. Some of these have been somewhat successful. However, these have not managed to unify the entire communities within the region they represent, nor have they seen much adoption beyond these demarcated boundaries.
So, “Why is it that most LOGISTICS SINGLE WINDOW SYSTEM subscribers continue to rely on their own disparate/ legacy software applications and utilise the LOGISTICS SINGLE WINDOW SYSTEM' only for filing shipment information in compliance to Airline mandated EDI file formats?
Stakeholders often claim that Airline-Forwarder coalitions tend to be inherently unstable without an equal ownership (profit sharing) relationship. Hence many large Forwarders with their cargo carriers or having high stakes in carriers prefer to leverage or build their assets.
The need for collaboration
IATA estimates that e-freight, apart from making the cargo supply chain paper-free, will also enhance cross-border sales by 60-80%. However, to make e-freight a reality, the air-cargo industry and the governments of many nations need to collaborate to facilitate and encourage electronic trade.
As per reports, the countries that have already taken that step currently represent just one-third of global air cargo by volume. The four largest and fastest-growing emerging markets - Brazil, Russia, India and China - stand to benefit most from the digitisation of the supply chain are those that do not yet permit 100% electronic customs clearance.
Roadblocks: in the Indian context
To answer the above question in the Indian context, “Why do most LOGISTICS SINGLE WINDOW SYSTEM subscribers continue to rely on their own disparate/ legacy software applications?” it has been observed that in the past, whatever community systems were introduced in India they lacked the understanding of the regional market. Also, they failed to deliver critical benefits to the Freight Forwarders and could not penetrate the markets. The forwarding community in India is spread out and operates in pockets of institutions/associations (e.g., ACCAI). The Forwarders orchestrate the entire flow of cargo & related information through the Indian supply chain. Therefore, a collaborative effort and platform were the key to overcoming this challenge.
How to achieve e-freight synergies?
EU/US customs did not mandate e-filing for all these years; IATA set a timeline for adopting e-freight some years ago. An electronic customs gateway like ICEGATE is insufficient for participants to reap e- freight's full benefits. All parties must support and embrace the paperless process from shipper to carrier to forwarder. The challenge is getting all parties in the air cargo transport supply chain onto the same digital page. To address this industry concern, IATA has paired with other representative associations from the air cargo supply chain and designed a joint roadmap for implementing the initiative, aiming to accelerate change. One of the prominent steps in this direction is also the formation of 'VAG', a vendor action group supported by the Global Air Cargo Advisory Group (GACAG), which representatives have formed from IATA, FIATA & TIACA. The VAG comprise select IT/software providers to the cargo industry. This has the sole objective of achieving collaboration within the cargo supply chain to digitise the core industry transport documents, starting with the Air Waybill.
Kale Logistics Solutions has always supported the e-freight initiative and has worked towards bringing India to a paper-free environment. It realised that if India is to reap the benefits of e-freight, it needs to combine the strength of - Industry Associations, IT providers and Industry stakeholders. Hence Kale Logistics worked closely with Industry associations like ' Air Cargo Agents Association of India- ACAAI' and have pioneered the creation of India's first cargo community platform- UPLIFT.
Today, UPLIFT is moving closer towards becoming an industry platform of choice. Airlines started giving monetary benefits to Indian forwarders for EDI filing, and UPLIFT was able to highlight & deliver this benefit to FF. The community now looks up to this platform not only as an EDI compliance tool but also to realise monetary & time advantages.
UPLIFT has 170+ Forwarders & Custom House Agents as its subscribers, with over 1600 users using the platform daily. There has been a swell in the number of EDI messages transmitted through UPLIFT to 10, 00 000 + being sent to over 450 shipment destinations globally.