OAG Cargo launches new standard for air freight rates management
The air freight industry is set benefit from a breakthrough new online and real-time rate-management and distribution product with the launch of OAG Cargo’s enhanced and upgraded AFRA Air Freight Rates application.
The optimised AFRA product is expected to become the standard for air freight rates management by airlines and their customers, and is the culmination of a three-year development project with significant investment by OAG Cargo, embracing the company’s eight years of acquired knowledge in air freight rates management, pre-transport decision-making and analysis.
AFRA Optimized & Enhanced is a completely rewritten and improved version of the cargo rates management tool that, since its launch in 2003, has become a key rate and surcharge distribution mechanism for 920 airlines and 300 cargo GSAs, which together publish more than five million rates for AFRA’s 12,600 individual users globally at more than 900 freight forwarding companies. It is still the most widely used global rates communication product in the market today.
As OAG Cargo is set for further expansion of AFRA, customers can continue to rely on exceptional performance and response times which in some cases have been able to be improved even further. Among the many new features added to the application is ‘e-acceptance’. This allows airlines and forwarders to communicate and record online rate agreements, reducing subsequent potential billing discrepancies. A second example is ‘spot price’ capturing, which enables the recording of rates that have been agreed ad hoc by telephone and email. Additional features include currency conversions of rates, zone-specific rates, as well as multiple PDF and Excel templates for mass distribution of rates by email.
Surcharges, particularly fuel, also form an integral part of the newly launched rate management system, having become such an important element in the cost of air freight.
Various options to personalise the information for specific contracts or relationships are available, giving airlines full control over which customers can see their tariffs, spot prices, and surcharges, supported by multiple levels of security to provide unique protection of data. It also provides direct links from the rates results page to airlines’ own booking sites or preferred booking portals.
OAG Cargo is offering a wide range of licence options, from basic access to AFRA for a small fee per month, right up to customised Enterprise solutions for global companies. During the development cycle, OAG Cargo has regularly engaged with its current AFRA clients – airlines and forwarders alike – to ensure that their requirements will be met with the new version. Customers were also actively involved in testing the beta-release of the new AFRA.
Dirk de Rooij, Executive Vice President of OAG Cargo, said: “The new version of AFRA sets the standard for rate management. It is loaded with new features and benefits for airlines and forwarders of all sizes, and as a scalable web-server solution it delivers improved performance and response times for general rates, promotional rates, customer contract rates and now also spot rates.
“Having a structured process around the communication of rates is recognised as an effective way for airlines to lower costs, offer a single access point for all rates and to quickly reach out to the international forwarding community. The addition of spot prices in AFRA reflects the fact that many bookings are being placed on this basis. We have noticed however that frequently both airlines and forwarders have very little structure in the capture of spot prices as they are agreed by email and phone. This can cause errors in billing, which in return can result in disputes later.
“AFRA can now prevent this and actually save both airlines and forwarders time and money. This is a particularly important new feature given that spot prices currently account for 80% of available tariffs in some markets, which puts additional pressure on airlines to manage and market rates and time-limited offers with maximum efficiency. Real-time rate changes in AFRA increases users’ opportunity to maximize their cargo revenue and yield - plus there is no cost for airlines to publish their rates in AFRA.”
The new version of the application is also equipped with a standardised rate interface for airlines, enabling carriers to directly load their rates into AFRA from within their own systems – quickly, securely and accurately. Furthermore, airlines can use AFRA to distribute rates to all customers, whether or not they are users of AFRA. Airlines and forwarders have also recognised that they can utilize AFRA not only as an external rates-communication tool, but also for internal rates management and distribution.
Steven Fayers, OAG Cargo’s Business Development Director, said: “Forwarders of all sizes already realise the benefits of AFRA, but the enhanced version gives them even more of an advantage. Speed is vital in terms of staff productivity, but also for their ability to communicate accurately and quickly with their shipping customers. We enable them to do an easy tariff search online, select their desired carriers, apply their mark up and ancillary costs and distribute their proposal to the shipper by email or a branded PDF template within 15 seconds – a massive time saving over manual processes. It also means, for example, that forwarders in Asia can get rates immediately from Europe without have to wait for offices to open, and with airlines continually updating the database with new rates, cargo agents can be confident of choosing the right airline and getting the right price for their shipment.”
On top of providing full capture of sales rates and supporting billing reconciliation; quotations and tenders to win new business or retain existing accounts can be quickly compiled using the data available. Forwarders can also use the technology to add in their charges for services such as handling, documentation and labelling, and produce well presented branded documents for customers.
“With more markets, reinforcing our position as a leading provider of business-critical decision-making tools for the air cargo industry,” added Dirk de Rooij. “We will also leverage the community of our other products, including Inforwarding, which now has more than 25,000 registered users worldwide. The optimised AFRA application is the first in a series of enhancements that OAG Cargo customers can look forward to in the coming months.”
Published: 06/07/2011
