INTTRA shipping instruction feature available to entire industry

INTTRA shipping instruction feature available to entire industry INTTRA, an e-commerce portal for ocean carriers and their customers, said Wednesday it has launched Universal Carrier Access, which the company said will bring increased efficiencies by enabling any INTTRA registered shipper or forwarder to transmit shipping instruction data to any carrier or non-vessel-operating common carrier in the world, at no charge to either party.
   INTTRA, designed to help shippers book and manage freight shipments with multiple ocean carriers using common standards, is owned and operated by a consortium of major container lines that allows customers to do business through a single Web site rather than different Web sites for each carrier.
   INTTRA officials said current users expressed an interest in being able to use the portal to reach all carriers, not just INTTRA member carriers.
   Portal officials said they are hoping to attract new customers, especially smaller freight forwarders who have not signed up for the service because they use smaller carriers, by giving them an opportunity to test the new feature. Non-member carriers can also become familiar with INTTRA at no cost before deciding whether to join the network.
   The launch of UCA follows a successful six-month pilot program, which incorporated more than 50 carriers and their customers and was designed to leverage the INTTRA platform to reach all carriers using a single, standard process.
   INTTRA represents more than 61 percent of the ocean freight capacity among the world’s top carriers, and is the largest multi-carrier e-commerce platform for the ocean industry.
   CargoSmart, another ocean freight e-commerce platform, earlier this month said it would allow all customers to connect to any carrier, even those outside the network or belonging to another portal, to manage their shipment information for a $2 fee.
   Customers who choose CargoSmart to manage all of their ocean carrier shipment information pay only for the non-member carriers’ portion of their shipments while continuing to have free access to member carriers’ shipment information, the company said.