Electronic billing for domestic air freight will be a top priorityBy Peter A. Buxbaum, AJOTWith a background of 25 years on the forwarding side of the air cargo industry, the new CEO of Cargo Network Services continues a company tradition of forging alliances between carriers and intermediaries. Jens Tubbesing, who took the reins of CNS on August 1, succeeding Anthony Calabrese, most recently served as CEO of ABX Logistics North America. In the past, he has also worked for Schenker, AEI, and Eagle Freight Services. CNS, a subsidiary of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), was incorporated in 1985 following deregulation of the aviation industry in the United States to address the needs of the air cargo community. CNS’s core products and services include CASS-USA, an Internet-based billing and payment service, training and accreditation programs, and an annual Partnership Conference, at which industry players meet and exchange ideas. Among Tubbesing’s top priorities as CNS chief will be to bring CASS to the US domestic air freight market. Organizationally, the company will be moving even closer to IATA, and will be aligned with that organization’s cargo programs and priorities. Toward the top of Tubbesing’s agenda will be to expand the CASS system to the domestic market. “CNS has been at the heart is the CASS system that ties forwarders and airlines together in a settlement environment,” he said. “This is a priority that has been demanded by customers and by the industry. We are in the process of defining and analyzing how this complex system can be expanded from the international to the domestic market.” CASS-USA is an Internet-based billing and payment service for the air cargo industry which automates a mostly manual system and allows the receipt and review of invoices, dispute settlement, and Internet payments. The system allows agents to review invoices online and download them into their accounting systems. The system also provides for dispute resolution by allowing agents to mark the dispute type with a code online and describe the discrepancy as they upload the information into the CASS system. Carriers review the discrepancy online and either accept the agent’s view, or re-bill necessary adjustments. Once an invoice is approved, agents set a date and authorize automatic electronic payment. “CNS has been a world leader with CASS,” said Tubbesing. “We started with electronic billing in 2003 and have worked hard to continually enhance, modify, and further refine the system, creating new benefits for forwarders and airlines. This is the approach we want to take going forward on the domestic side.” Cementing organizational tiesCNS’s emphasis on enhancing and expanding CASS coincides with IATA’s cargo priorities which are weighted toward automating international air cargo shipping through CASS and which also include safety and security initiatives and “Cargo 2000,” a quality management program. The two entities have also recently further cemented their organizational ties. “IATA is our sole shareholder and always has been,” Tubbesing explained, “but what has changed is that, in the past we were governed by an external board. Now the board consists exclusively of IATA executives, among them the global head of cargo, Aleks Popovich. We are now aligning our activities and priorities with those of IATA.” CNS will continue to have an external advisory board consisting of the airline and forwarding executives who made up the old board. “We will still have guidance from that group,” Tubbesing contended. “That has been a strong recipe for CNS’s success in the past.” This move has been met with, “curiosity, and some skepticism” by the air cargo industry, according to Tubbesing, especially since the move coincided with changes in CNS’s executive leadership. Besides Tubbesing’s replacement of Calabrese, long time CNS board chairman Guenter Rohrmann also recently retired. “There has been concern that IATA will overrun CNS and not allow