Benefits of electronic data interchange between forwarding company & air cargo handling and trucking subcontractor

The thesis work studied the benefits of electronic data interchange between a freight forwarding company and their Air Cargo Handling and trucking subcontractor. In today’s logistics, supply chain management and freight forwarding the timely availability of accurate data is crucial to meet customer demands and stay competitive. NTG Air & Ocean Oy already had EDI in use with other parts of the air export process and sees implementing EDI with the air cargo handling and trucking subcontractor as a great improvement to the process. The thesis was conducted as a case study. The research method was qualitative, and the empirical research was done with a half-structured theme interview, which interviewed freight forwarders and the air freight business director on their thoughts on how EDI can improve the air export process. Key findings of the research were that EDI would remove unnecessary phases of work, improve data control, increase accuracy of information, reduce human error, improve communication and customer service, improve the processing time of air export shipments, reduce information processing costs and printing, increase remote work capabilities, increase productivity, allow all data to be available straight away at the freight forwarding software, and ultimately enable faster delivery schedules for customers due to increased processing speed. According to the results of the research, in addition to the parts of the air export process that the subcontractor is directly a part of, the benefits of EDI applied to other parts of the air export process as well and would provide an incredible amount of value to the supply chain of NTG Air & Ocean Oy and its customers