DHL Global Forwarding joins IATA's paperless e-freight system

DHL Global Forwarding will join the International Air Transport Association's (IATA) global e-freight system with its pledge to replace 30 paper documents with 16 electronic documents, rising to 20 electronic files by 2010.

DHL Global Forwarding via electronic data interchange (EDI) handles more than a third of all international forwarder-issued e-freight shipments worldwide and introduced e-freight shipments in 21 countries, covering 108 airport locations.

"This is a future-oriented project," said DHL Global air freight chief Michael Schaecher. "E-Freight offers major advantages for our organisation, our service partners, our highly valued customers and the environment."

Benefits of the initiative include better visibility, lower costs, faster service, greater reliability and accuracy due to one-time data entry at the point of origin.

"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", said IATA vice president Aleks Popovich.

Source: SchedNet