CSX LINES REPORTS 50% TAKE-UP FOR ELECTRONIC BOOKINGS

CSX LINES REPORTS 50% TAKE-UP FOR ELECTRONIC BOOKINGS    CSX Lines said that the proportion of its customer bookings made online has increased to 50 percent for the first time.
   The U.S. domestic shipping line said that it met its initial e-business target of 35 percent of online bookings in the second quarter of the year. It expects to increase the ratio further from the current 50 percent to 75 percent by the end of the year.
   The carrier currently receives an average of more than 100 bookings per week through a paperless process. Shippers using the company’s electronic system can “conduct booking and documentation processes with a single click of a mouse,” CSX Lines said. A user can make a booking directly into the system in 28 seconds.
   “Shippers are beginning to recognize the cost savings in these web-based processes, and we believe that paper and faxes within production centers will be relics of a past shipping era,” a spokesman for CSX Lines said.
   In October, CSX Lines set up a new unit called Horizon Services Group to develop and sell the company’s backend and web-based systems externally.