IATA partners with PayCargo for air cargo payment platform

PayCargo LLC, operator of a web-based payment platform for freight and logistics, is expanding a 2017 agreement with U.S.-based IATA subsidiary Cargo Network Services (CNS) to the global association. Under the expanded partnership, global air cargo customers will be able to make online payments and immediately access settlement data through the IATA-PayCargo System.

A major challenge facing the airfreight industry has been its unwillingness to progress beyond analog practices and move to digitalized processes. This year, IATA is making a point of pressuring cargo carriers to finally digitalize processes that have been stubbornly stuck on paper documentation, even as the passenger side of aviation has already progressed. In November, after years of encouraging the industry to move to electronic air waybills (e-AWBs), IATA finally announced that the e-AWB would become the default contract of carriage for all air cargo shipments on enabled trade lanes as of Jan. 1. The new partnership is another nod to the importance for the industry to improve its operational efficiency.

Of the expanded partnership, Aleks Popovich, SVP, Financial and Distribution Services with IATA, said, “Partnering with PayCargo globally will deliver more efficiency and cost savings to the air cargo value chain by streamlining the payment process of air cargo import operations and enabling a faster delivery of shipments.”

PayCargo already has an extensive list of same-day release vendors operating in the U.S., and this month added United Cargo at Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) and trucking company Summit NW Corp. at its Portland International Airport (PDX) and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) stations. With the IATA partnership in place, carriers and 3PLs will likely soon sign on at overseas airports.

“Having experienced the success of the CNS-PayCargo System in the United States, it only made sense to allow all our global customers to benefit from the strength of such a partnership,” said Eduardo Del Riego, CEO of PayCargo. “The PayCargo system, which already has 20,000 users worldwide, has proven to be highly efficient and allows members to reduce costs significantly.”

Those interested in learning more about trends in air cargo are invited to join us at Cargo Facts Asia 2019, to be held 15-17 at the Langham Shanghai. For more information, or to register, visit www.cargofactsasia.com.