Thursday, June 19, 2008

IATA E-Freight Implementation Program

In 2004, International Air Transport Association (IATA) launched the "e-freight" project, designed to eliminate the need to produce and transport paper documents for air cargo shipments by moving to a more simple, industry-wide, electronic, paper-free environment - for further background, please click here

To date, IATA have implemented a pilot program in eight countries and are aiming to add another six to this total during the course of 2008. IATA have completed a detailed assessment of operating conditions in Australia and have derived that Sydney would be an ideal pilot location to be included within this process. Importantly, the initiative has support from the Australian national carrier (Qantas Airways), statutory authorities and key industry stakeholders.

IATA hosted a "kick off" meeting on 17 February 2008, inviting representatives from the Australian Federation of International Forwarders (AFIF), Customs Brokers and Forwarders Council of Australia Inc (CBFCA), airlines and government to discuss implementation of the e-freight initiative in Australia. IATA have established an ambitious timeline to implement the pilot within the next four months.

IATA will establish an e-freight Management Group (eFMG), to be chaired by a Qantas representative with representation from cargo terminal operators, airlines, Customs, AQIS, DOITRDLG, AFIF and the CBFCA.

Reporting to the eFMG will be the Business Working Group (BWG) which will also be chaired by a Qantas representative. The BWG will be responsible for the business process, operational, technical and legal aspects of implementing e-freight in an Australian environment. Specifically, the BWG will :

Make recommendations to eFMG on implementation timelines and solutions (legal, business process, technical)
Review the generic IATA Cargo "To Be" business process and the IATA
e-Freight Operating Procedures (e-FOPs) to determine the location gaps and make recommendation to overall approach to implementation
Define and validate the Australian "To-Be" business process and e-FOPs, following the post-dry run and post-wet run reports and ensure all local stakeholders and IATA endorse these
Follow-up on gaps and issues (business process, operational, legal, technical) and make sure they are addressed and closed (put in place workaround solutions if necessary)

Whilst several larger freight forwarders have already been nominated on the pilot as a part of their global commitment to the e-freight initiative, IATA sees it as being important to have BWG representation from small to medium size forwarding companies and from Customs brokers.

In order to support this outcome, AFIF and the CBFCA are seeking expressions of interest from members to be involved in the BWG. Whilst participation provides an opportunity to be at the "cutting edge" of this important development in international trade, there will be an expectation of a substantial time commitment by BWG participants over a maximum period of four months. It is expected that BWG will have regular meetings and conference calls (weekly / fortnightly).

To find out more information and / or to express interest to participate in the BWG, please contact the following by Thursday 26 June 2008 :

Brian Lovell (Chief Executive Officer - AFIF) 02 9314 3094 brian@afif.asn.au

Paul Zalai (Manager Freight & Business Operations - CBFCA) 02 9975 3075 pzalai@cbfca.com.au

Thank you and kind regards,

Brian Lovell

Chief Executive Officer

Australian Federation of International Forwarders Ltd (AFIF)

Suite 403, Level 3

152 Bunnerong Road

Eastgardens NSW 2036

Tel: (61 2) 9314 3055

Fax: (61 2) 9314 3116