Charles Marrale
Founder and CEO
How is ExFreight using API connectivity as a next step in digital air cargo for freight forwarders?
The advent of dynamic air cargo pricing communicated via API enables carriers to set a market price based on real-time capacity. We use WebCargo’s API to connect the airlines’ actual capacity and pricing directly to our ecosystem allowing our shipper customers to go online and get accurate middle-mile information on available flights, space, and pricing as part of our end-to-end quote. And we only have to make one API connection to WebCargo for this data instead of 10-15 to different airlines, making it very easy for us to do so.
What are some of the benefits of dynamic API-based pricing you’ve seen so far?
Real-time access to dynamic rates means that when carriers end up with excess space to fill, we can see those prices drop and we and our customers can take advantage of those savings.
Enabling low-touch air cargo bookings for our customers has also greatly improved our operational efficiency and ability to scale: instead of spending time moving simple shipments, our operations team can focus on solving problems for our customers.
Digital air cargo also improves the customer’s experience through saving them time otherwise spent on emails or price negotiations with us, and through the flexibility of being able to search and book 24/7 without having to get anyone on our team involved.
What’s next in terms of pricing APIs’ potential?
Integrating the dynamic pricing API into our customers’ ERPs opens up possibilities for automated, marketbased, decision-making. For example, if the ERP-integrated API detects a price drop in a given market, it can trigger a sourcing decision to place a peak season order early to capture those savings now instead of maintaining the predetermined sourcing plan.
