Why is e-freight only adopted at 6% in the United States?

Only 6 out of 100 shipments out of the United States are e-freight, in fourteen years consecutive, tireless effort.

The answer boils down to and actually lies in the hands of the forwarder. Those who cut the paper Airway Bills simply do not see the benefits of going paperless.

We must ask hard questions. We must speak to the hearts of them.

  1. Does e-AWB practice reduce duplicate data entry?
  2. Does it simplify the process? For example, to consolidate the AES and AWB data input.
  3. Does it provide convenience or excellent user experience as everybody knows what it is due to ubiquitous smartphones ?
  4. Does it provide visibility into cargo movement, and therefore quality ?
  5. Does it cause extra cost ? If yes, how much and in exchange for what?

These are real challenges we must do our best to meet. We must make sure what we’re delivering has immediate and obvious benefits. People are busy. If they don’t immediately see the benefits of what we’re giving them, they’ll ignore and move on. I get really excited when the stuff we do solves a pain and has immediate and obvious benefits. We badly need a pain-driven design mindset.

In line of the above spirit, we need to provide a community tool to assist those who cut the AWB in achieving our goal. The technology is available and cheap now.

Here is one of the emails I received from Mr. Michael White, CNS e-freight evangelist:

“We need effective communication routes for the forwarders, especially small and medium sized ones, to transmit their FWB & FHL. I think that it is not desirable for the forwarders to input and send their FWB & FHL by using airlines’ home page.

There is no community system in the US but there are signs that companies are looking at that capability. I agree that many forwarders are reluctant to use multiple airline portals and there is a need for a community system.”