While freight technology has become increasingly efficient, the separation of freight sourcing and payment remains a barrier, leading to cumbersome reconciliation, wasted time transferring to multiple partners, and costly credit guarantees.

Having facilitated over 100,000 online digital bookings between freight forwarders and carriers in the first quarter of 2022, WebCargo by Freightos is proud to be the first freight booking platform to unify real-time rates and booking with payments. A rigorous pilot is successfully completed today after handling hundreds of shipments for some thirty participating freight forwarders and two air groups in three countries, proving to be a valuable lever for efficiency.

Progress has been accelerated with Freightos’ global payment expertise, which already facilitates tens of millions of dollars in annual payments. “Freight and payments are the foundations of global trade, but both introduce friction. Until now, freight forwarders would book freight on one platform and pay on another, which is like shopping on Amazon but paying on Paypal,” said Zvi Schreiber, CEO of Freightos Group. . “We aim to digitize both into one platform, improving the way freight forwarders and carriers interact and providing a better experience for importers and exporters.”

“Since we started using WebCargo, our business has grown tremendously,” said Nirav Gandhi, managing director of Spring World, a UK freight forwarder. “We started with WebCargo six months ago, and it’s now our main booking platform. It’s awesome and a boon. We’re able to place a paid and confirmed booking in just ten minutes.”

The payment platforms are now operational in the US, Europe and the UK, with plans to roll out to parts of Asia in the near future. Qatar Airways Cargo was the first airline to pilot the solution and is joined by IAG Cargo, with other airlines expected shortly.

“In-app payments are a natural progression from digital bookings,” said Guillaume Halleux, cargo director at Qatar Airways Cargo. “By unifying payments with reservations, we can provide a more efficient and effective service to a growing base of customers around the world, securely. In fact, this technology opens new frontiers for airlines by allowing them to accept bookings from every freight forwarder in a given market without having to build or maintain an inventory of AWBs.”

Peter Roberts, Head of Distribution at IAG Cargo, said, “We are delighted to be part of WebCargo by Freightos’ new integrated payment platform, which supports our goal of streamlining the customer journey. This is an extremely exciting time for the industry.

“At IAG Cargo, we are constantly looking for ways to improve efficiency 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 by safely.” he added.