Airfreight Booking Firm WebCargo Launches Payments Tool

Airfreight digital booking portal WebCargo can now directly process real-time rates and payments for forwarders and airlines, enabling forwarders to pay for bookings on the platform rather than using a separate tool, Air Cargo News reported on Friday (May 27).

Part of the Freightos Group, WebCargo is testing the new payment service with roughly 30 freight forwarders in the U.S., Europe, and the U.K., with plans to launch in parts of Asia soon and with the airlines IAG Cargo and Qatar Cargo. Additional airlines are expected to join the test soon.

See also: Digital Payments Speed the Movement of Cargo

“Freight and payments are foundations of global trade, but both introduce friction. Until today, forwarders booked cargo on one platform and paid on another, which is like shopping on Amazon but paying on Paypal,” said Zvi Schreiber, chief executive of the Freightos Group.

“We aim to digitalize both on one platform, improving how forwarders and carriers interact and providing a better experience for importers and exporters,” he said.

A WebCargo survey showed that just 4% of carriers enable payments online. The WebCargo platform facilitated more than 100,000 eBookings in the first quarter of this year.

Read more: Freight Booking Platform Freightos Acquires 7LFreight

“By unifying payments with bookings, we can provide more effective and efficient service to a growing base of customers worldwide, safely and securely,” said Guillaume Halleux, chief cargo officer at Qatar Airways Cargo.

“As a matter of fact, this technology opens new frontiers to airlines by allowing them to accept bookings from every freight forwarder in a given market without having to setup or maintain a stock of AWB,” Halleux said.

Related: ‘Ship Now, Pay Later’ Helps Manufacturers Clear Supply Chain Hurdles, Get Vendors Paid

Peter Roberts, head of distribution at IAG Cargo, said that the partnership is an organic extension of its previous collaborations with Freightos and will help “significantly reduce the time it takes for a new customer to book with IAG Cargo safely and securely.”