INDUSTRY
DISRUPTORS
All change
David Smith fi nds that new brooms are defi nitely sweeping clean in the aviation sector.
To an outsider with a
technical background,
the backwardness of
the air cargo industry can be
surprising. The positive aspect
is that when those outsiders
are entrepreneurs, or tech
wizards, they might possess
the tools to replace those
outdated methods that raise
eyebrows. A good example is
Moritz Claussen, the Managing
Director of cargo.one, a spotmarket
booking portal that
was created in 2017 and which
already works with 300 freight
forwarders and six airlines.
Claussen was a classic example
of an expert from another
industry – in this case fi nancial
technology – offering a new
perspective. For cargo.one, the
eureka moment was seeing
an e-mail requesting the fast
delivery of powdered milk
from Frankfurt to Shanghai.
Ineffi cient procedures
“We were doing an internship
at a forwarder at Frankfurt
airport to understand everyday
issues when we saw an e-mail
asking for 450 kilogrammes
of powdered milk to Shanghai
fashioned and time-wasting.”
Working in fi nancial
technology meant that
Claussen’s team were used
to far more advanced data
analytics. Like everyone
else, they were also used to
the passenger experience of
being able to book airline
tickets through online price
comparison websites. It took
another year to work out with
freight forwarders how best to
build a portal to help them.
Cargo.one went live in August
2018 and growth has been
rapid ever since.
to be sent within two hours.
The forwarder blind copied
12 airlines, requesting price
quotes,” Claussen recalls. “We
were surprised at the use of
such an ineffi cient procedure.
It took a day for everyone to
respond and that was only for
quotes, not for booking. We
asked other freight forwarders,
large and small, and they used
the same slow process.
“We sat down with the
airlines and all they did all day
was receive requests, check
the price, put it in an e-mail
and send it back. It was old
26 October 2019 www.airlogisticsinternational.com
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