This past month, we sponsored a webinar that dove inside the changing world of air cargo and the need for massive operational improvements to meet the demands of tomorrow’s customer. Professionals from Youredi, Alibaba Group, and IATA collaborated in an effort to further educate industry professionals, but also to seek answers to questions that are vital to understand in order to move the industry, as a whole, forward. Questions such as: Why three years on from the initial e-AWB kick-off, penetration has not yet reached 40%. Why is it taking so long? What is required to get to 100% adoption and from there, tackle e-freight—another 30-plus electronic messages.
Our experts narrowed a wide array of survey questions down to the few we felt would best depict the current state of air cargo, and help us understand what needs to occur in order to make the shift toward a paperless and cost-efficient industry.
We surveyed over 100 air cargo and supply chain professionals and asked, "What is the biggest factor keeping you from 100% digitizing your air cargo operations and systems?" The results are depicted in the graph below.
36.5% of participants answered that the biggest factor keeping them from digitizing their air cargo operations and systems is supply chain member and partner limitations. 29.8% answered that it is due to a lack of regulatory push from the industry itself. Cost, which many anticipated would be the primary factor, only accounted for 17.3%.
Do these results surprise you? Do you agree with the majority? Or would your answer differ from any of the available options ?
Please provide your thoughts in the comments section below. Your feedback is vital to our goal of helping to improve the overall experience for all customers, partners, and professionals in the air cargo industry.