Air Export
The Air Export system provides complete facilities for the rating, preparation and tracking of Air Waybills. In addition, it includes automatic Sales Reporting functions for all airlines, whether or not on CASS.
Air Waybills are entered using a template system. A template can be established for any type of shipment and retains all details (consignee, shipper, routing, flight details by day of the week, carriage, customs and insurance values, rating and handling charges) desired for future use. Templates can be tracked by consignee, shipper or destination. A Consignee database may be maintained by the user. Each shipper may have an unlimited number of Consignees which can be selected by city.
Air Waybills are designated as Master, House or Direct. House bills must be against the House airline and have a valid Master AWB designated. The system can assign Air Waybill numbers from inventory. MAWB's will automatically be assigned the House airline as shipper.
All codes (airlines, airports, countries, currencies) are validated. BMS provides files with these codes and programs to maintain them.
The system includes a rating function. Users can enter rates for each airline/route/classification. The system will automatically calculate freight charges based on this rating data. The system allows the entry of dimensions and calculates dimensional weight. Chargeable weight is then the greater of the gross or dimensional weight. If the rating feature is used, the least cost or minimum weight will be used as appropriate.
Special logic is included to document freight charges within the body of the Waybill. These lines are stored and displayed but not printed. All of the detail line special codes required by the FWB CargoIMP message are also supported.
A Charter Rate database can be maintained. By entering the airlines special offers by weight and path, users can then choose the best rate offering for a given situation.
Air Waybills are printed on pin fed stock using BMS's Formgen package. This permits the use of variable fonts and pitches to improve the appearance and readability of the waybill. In addition, Air Waybills, Manifests and associated invoices may be Faxed or E-mailed directly from the system or printed on a Postscript capable printer. AWB's prepared in this fashion will appear on the universal Air Waybill form.
The system will print both Consol and Airline Manifests. Routing labels in accordance with IATA Resolution 606 as well as address labels can also be printed. Users may Fax the Consol Manifest as a Pre-Alert to overseas agents and may include image copies of all Air Waybills as part of the package.
Shipper's Export Declarations are either printed or transmitted electronically to the Bureau of Census. The system will accept either HTS or Schedule B numbers. There is an on-line Schedule B number database which is drawn from information provided electronically by Census.
A complete CASS Sales Report function is included. This interacts directly with the accounting system. CASS payables are posted to the Accounts Payable system for payment. AIRPEX has full support for the electronic transfer of settlement data from and to CNS using the Carrier Submission Process implemented in 1997.
The Tracking system allows tracking by airline, AWB, date, shipper, shipper's reference and destination. Multiple shipper's references are tracked per shipment. If you are using the EDI Cargo tracking available from SNS or Teledyne-Brown, shipment status details will be provided automatically. Otherwise, provisions are made for manual entry of this data. HAWB's will show the flight status details from the MAWB. The tracking system can also display every detail of every waybill, since all details are maintained in the History files and never purged.
Shippers can access a limited subset of this data. They are restricted to their own shipments and have no access to accounting data, costs, etc.
BMS is in the vanguard of EDI implementation for air shipments. We have been live on United's Cargo Plus system on a host-to-host basis since 1991 and have been exchanging CargoIMP messages through TDNI since 1992. We have also exchanged CargoIMP messages through SITA and TRAXON. We are sending booking messages and receiving and processing responses. We are sending FWB (electronic air waybill) messages to all airlines that accept them.