FREIGHTGATE IN FREIGHT CONTRACT STANDARDIZATION DRIVE
Freightgate, Inc., the Huntington Beach, Calif.-based shipping software company, has formed an alliance to create and promote an industry standard for formats in which freight contract rates are transmitted.
Founded by Freightgate, ACES — or the Alliance for Contract Exchange Standardization — has invited industry leaders among carriers, non-vessel-operating common carriers and shippers to participate as founding members.
“We had a very positive response to the invitations we sent to prospective founding members and are excited about bringing ACES to the public,” said Martin Hubert, chief executive officer and president of Freightgate and founder of the Alliance for Contract Exchange Standardization. During a pre-launch period, the company was contacted “by many large players interested in taking part,” he said.
However, Freightgate did not say whether any other company had agreed to join the alliance.
While other supply chain processes are becoming increasingly automated, or at least automation-friendly, the processes
and tools used for service contract rates must be improved on an industry level, Freighgate said.
The Alliance for Contract Exchange Standardization plans on facilitating the efficiency of the negotiation, maintenance, querying, and presentation of such data. This will be done, not by providing an association-based system, but by providing an electronic format that will make it easier to get rates into a system, Freightgate said.
The alliance has set up a website at www.joinaces.org .