Geneva, Switzerland, June 3, 2015 – John DeBenedette, Managing Director (MD) of online platform for independent forwarders, WIN, has challenged air freight bosses to urgently adopt a technology manifesto for change.
The air cargo industry must abandon inefficient, expensive, out-of-date technology in favor of web-based solutions and embrace e-freight, according to John DeBenedette, MD of WIN. Speaking at IATA’s e-Cargo Conference and Workshop in Geneva, Switzerland, today, he called on all air freight stakeholders to embrace a technology manifesto for change and bring the industry into the 21st century.
“We need disruptive innovation, to look to common platforms accessed by the web,” said DeBenedette. “If we continue relying on 1990s solutions, e-freight adoption is going to take forever. e-collaboration is powering modern business everywhere, the likes of Amazon are booming, the technology is less expensive, more reliable, and more secure. We have to move away from saving and forwarding messages, we need a paradigm shift here and now.”
DeBenedette said the air cargo community must work towards adopting common platforms accessed by the web, agree to move away from ‘store and forward’ messaging, and collaborate to explore new technologies and business models for inter-operability. “Let’s call it a technology manifesto for change,” he said.
“Collaboration like this is the future not only for e-AWB but for many other issues we face in the air cargo industry. Already since this session we have seen a major Thai forwarder sign up and actually begin e-AWB shipments and I have also had renewed interest from two major European airlines. This is all good news and I look forward to seeing more and more e-AWB shipments moving through our cargo terminal,” he added.
“We need to agree on this and move the industry forward and we need to do it now.”