As the air cargo industry continues to digitalise, airlines, freight forwarders, ground handlers and customs authorities need to be able to securely work together digitally.
This is a considerable challenge as today more than 40,000 freight forwarders exchange messages with more than 450 airlines, and 23 third party messaging service providers. In the absence of a tool for companies to exchange the information needed to make these business links, the process of digitisation is essentially manual, slow and unduly complex.
"Epic is a simple idea. It makes the information needed to do business across a digitised air cargo supply chain easily accessible. And in doing so, it will accelerate efficiency gains for air cargo. The timing of this initiative is important. Covid-19 has led to the exponential growth of e-commerce and shippers are demanding quality services that only a digitized supply chain can provide," said Nick Careen, IATA senior vice president, airport, passenger, cargo, security.
In addition to supporting business-to-business processes, the participation of customs organisations in EPIC also supports digital customs clearance processes. In particular, this will help the efficient roll-out of Advance Cargo Information (ACI) requirements, including Preloading Advance Cargo Information (PLACI) programs.
