ELECTRONIC
AIR WAYBILLS
E-FLAT?
According to IATA data, where “feasible” trade lanes exist (ie where there are treaties
that support the electronic air waybill), around two-thirds of the cargo sector has
embraced a paperless paradise. But what about the rest? Alwyn Brice caught up
with an advocate of the electronic measure, Gerry Burgin, and finds that the idea is
older than most people realise…
Put the clock back to 1971.
It was a memorable year:
aside from the fact that
the first home video recorder
was made available, Apollo
14 went to the moon and
that Disney World opened
in Orlando, it was also the
year that Heathrow rolled out
the London Airport Cargo
Electronic Data Processing
Scheme, or LACES for short.
This was a remarkable step
that August, the first attempt
anywhere in the world to begin
to get to grips with automating
the freight business. Gerry
Burgin was involved with this
were three levels of Customs
clearance: the first was a simple
checking of documents, the
second a check of the freight
and the documentation and
the third permitted a quick
processing of goods, which
might take anything from one
to three hours. This was the
monumental step forward,
one that allowed the airport to
control the inventory of the
transit sheds.
“Basically, the application
was designed for Customs and
Excise to control inventory
and Customs import clearance
procedures,” he says. “There
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