CEVA Logistics, one of the world's leading global supply chain companies, announced that it is among the first Freight Management companies to sign up to electronic Air Way Billing (e-AWB) with IATA (International Air Transport Association) the trade association for the world's airlines, representing some 240 airlines or 84% of total air traffic.

The agreement moves CEVA one step closer to achieving paperless Airfreight operations and is just one way that the company is looking to minimize its impact on the environment. Paperless Airfreight will help increase the efficiency, accuracy and speed of processing freight while reducing error rate and costs for CEVA and its customers. According to IATA the freight forwarding industry currently ships 7,800 tons each year in shipment documentation alone.

Peter Baumgartner, CEVA's VP Global Air Procurement, said: This agreement with IATA is an exciting step towards operating in a completely paperless Airfreight environment. We believe that by using e-AWB we will be able to process freight more efficiently, accurately and quickly, while at the same time eliminating the unnecessary use of paper, delivering environmental benefits to CEVA and our customers.

The multilateral e-AWB agreement is the most important new cargo standard developed in the last two decades. It gives us critical momentum to achieving the e-freight vision of a paperless cargo system, said Des Vertannes, IATA's Global Head of Cargo

CEVA will be piloting the process in four locations: New York, Atlanta, London and Frankfurt, with the aim of rolling out e-AWB to its entire network, which spans over 160 countries worldwide, by 2015.

The e-AWB agreement essentially replaces the hard copy terms and conditions previous on the reverse of the paper Air Way Bill and as such is signed by all freight forwarders participating in the scheme.