Systematic digitization of the air freight business and further quality improvements are right at the top of Lufthansa Cargo's 2014 agenda. This was underscored by Dr. Andreas Otto, Board Member Products and Sales at Europe’s leading cargo airline, on Wednesday at the “Lufthansa Cargo in Dialogue” event. More than 200 logistics industry representatives accepted Lufthansa Cargo’s invitation to the two-day conference.

“We are collaborating with our customers to ensure that goods find their way through the complex supply chain even faster, even more efficiently and with even greater reliability”, stressed Dr Andreas Otto. “Closer networking is crucial to this, especially via digital interfaces.” In addition to significant investment in brand new aircraft and state-of-the-art logistics infrastructure, the major expansion of electronic processes is a key element in the “Lufthansa Cargo 2020” future programme.

The Lufthansa subsidiary invited its customers to take part in an “e-Award” for the first time last year. It is aimed at further supporting the rapid expansion of digital processes between forwarders and airlines. Ipsen Logistics (overall winner) and Kuehne + Nagel (forwarder with more than 10,000 air waybills per year) were the first recipients. The “e-Award” takes a number of factors into account, including the percentage of electronic bookings and the use of eFreight. 

“We want to drive digitization in our industry with the ‘e-Award’. We had a successful start with the eAWB last year in Munich. We will roll this out to all other German stations over the course of the year”, emphasized J. Florian Pfaff, Vice President Area Management Germany at Lufthansa Cargo. “It’s becoming increasingly obvious that digitizing the process chain benefits everyone – consignors, forwarders and airlines.”

The freight airline also announced the winners of the Lufthansa Cargo Quality Award for the German market for the fourth time. MT Logistik was named the forwarder with the best delivery quality in 2013. SDV Geis prevailed amongst the large forwarders with more than 10,000 air waybills per year. The Lufthansa Cargo Quality Award assesses different quality parameters such as compliance to booking specifications and delivery punctuality. 

Two further awards went to Quick Cargo Service (overall winner) and SDV Geis (category with over 10,000 air waybills per year). Both companies achieved outstanding results in the Quality Award and “e-Award” and were honored for their combined evaluation.