The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA) and digital cargo booking platform cargo.one have made a clear statement of intent in their mission to promote technological innovation in the airfreight sector. cargo.one’s Founder and Co-CEO Moritz Claussen joined the association as a Trustee member – the highest level of membership – in March, bringing his experience in building digital businesses at a time when TIACA is keen to embrace new opportunities across the cargo and logistics industry.
In recent years, digitalisation has increased at a rapid pace in the air cargo industry, with digital booking platforms, like cargo.one, seeking to improve efficiency and effectiveness of operations in the sector. The opportunities presented by digital platforms is seen in the strong results reported by forwarders and airlines who have embraced technology.
“We feel very honoured and humbled7 by the confidence that cargo.one displayed in us by becoming a Trustee. It’s the highest level of membership category that we have,” TIACA’s Director General Glyn Hughes explained.
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TIACA’s vision
Speaking to Air Cargo Week, Claussen explained his motivation to team up with TIACA came from conversations with Hughes, who was clear about the need to drive progress in the industry.
“I thought that was well aligned with how we think. It’s important to have industry initiatives and associations of people coming together to promote innovation,” Claussen said. “We found an organisation in TIACA and a person in Glyn who are pushing the right things to really advance the industry.”
“We firmly believe that this industry’s root to survival is that we have to think differently and act differently,” Hughes added. “That’s seen in this new breed of organisations, new CEO, the guys that come in and say: ‘There’s no such thing as a problem that’s not insurmountable. It’s just another opportunity to do something different.’”
“Our role at TIACA is to shine a spotlight on innovation. We want to create a home for all these innovative, creative new ideas to show the world that there is a way to inspire and achieve new results,” he explained.
Beyond standard setting
With the airfreight industry becoming increasingly complex, competitive and globally connected, standardisation can simplify processes and, in some cases, reduce cost and complexity for businesses. After all, it aims to allow stakeholders in each of the airfreight sectors, whether airlines, airports, freight forwarders, GSAs, government departments, etc, seamlessly. However, while this might have been crucial for the first 30-40 years of the industry, Hughes believes that “we’re in a different era now.” Claussen agrees, believing that the old approach of sticking to set standards makes the industry slower, delaying positive progress that can improve operations and allow companies to adapt to rapidly evolving situations.
“It’s now a case of who can run fastest because of the demands that are being placed on the industry,” By joining us, Moritz and cargo.one bring their approach of challenging processes in the industry to find more effective ways of operating. “We like challenge. We like our members to be challenged. We want TIACA to be that home where people feel that we want to create the right environment for people who are creative and can help expose that to the wider airfreight community.”
Continuing to innovate
While cargo.one prides itself on being an innovator when it comes to technological development in the air cargo space, working to accelerate digital cargo sales, Claussen is aware that the company can’t rest on its laurels – it has to continue to evolve. The same is true for TIACA, as an association.
As new opportunities emerge and digitalisation grows, Claussen acknowledges that they “continuously need to innovate.”
“We came into the industry five years ago with a product and an idea that just didn’t exist. Now there are more companies offering the same or similar service, we have to focus on aspects that some others might not.”
“Let’s actually start pushing the rest of the world to where the collective thinking actually says the world is going,” Hughes said. “The more we get challenged by this new generation of CEOs, the more demand we have to go and translate to governments and the industry. You can’t wait five years, we need to up our game, translating all this new knowledge into helping create a better environment.”
“I think this industry will thrive on collaboration and associations, like TIACA, and maybe TIACA first and foremost, are able to create that collaboration on a different level between more established players, newer, younger companies and those that still need to come in,” Claussen continued.
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