Panalpina’s new airfreight booking platform offers instant rate quotations

Logistics giant Panalpina has successfully piloted its new, fully automated online quotation and booking platform for ad hoc cargo with selected airfreight customers.
Panalpina chief executive Stefan Karlen said: “We have recently reached a significant milestone in modernising the company’s systems landscape by successfully rolling out our new state-of-the-art operational platform in Germany – one of our key markets.
“Now, Panalpina is taking the next logical step in creating a seamless customer experience that will make managing global shipments faster and simpler.”
The Switzerland-based forwarder’s new centralised digital platform provides customers with a “fast, simple and reliable online interface” that enables informed decision-making by giving access to "easy and instantaneous quotation and booking of ad hoc shipments globally".
Some of the first key customer benefits of the new platform are instant freight quotations due to an automated rate calculation "without human intervention".
Other benefits highlighted by Panalpina for using the platform are quoted rates covering door-to-door transactions including pre- and on-carriage, and also the ability for rates to be viewed and then the freight booked "instantaneously with a few mouse-clicks and without the need to pick up a phone or write an email".
Lucas Kuehner, global head of airfreight at Panalpina, said: “The platform offers key features such as dynamic pricing, global coverage and online 24/7 accessibility.
“In today’s highly volatile market environment, our automated platform allows us to respond very quickly to customer inquiries by providing competitive rates as well as cargo capacity either through our Charter Network or best-in-class partner carriers.”
Ralf Morawietz, Panalpina’s chief information officer, explained: “Today, anyone can easily set up an appealing front-end tool for freight quotation or booking. 
“The key question to ask is: What happens on the back end when a query is triggered? In our case, sophisticated algorithms immediately scan the industry’s most comprehensive online databases, without manual intervention, to calculate the best freight rates and options for our customers.”
Karlen added: “We are excited to launch the platform in the first quarter of next year, and thereafter extend this new-generation digital portal across our entire product portfolio and customer base.”
Panalpina went live with its new transportation management system at the end of May this year, in different business units throughout Germany. Before the actual go-live took place in Germany, a major release upgrade was installed.
Completion of the roll-out in Germany meant that about 30% of all transactions will be handled on the new platform.
A company spokesperson said at the time: “Panalpina Germany is our third biggest organization in terms of shipment transactions globally. The successful roll-out in Germany will further confirm the system’s capabilities.”
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