The solution is complementary to Maersk’s online quoting solutions and went live on Monday 20 August. It makes all short-term rates – also known as FAK rates – available close to instantly for Maersk Line customers on the CargoSphere platform.

Maersk Line is currently working with the first customers on the platform and expect to scale the solution to be widely available to its CargoSphere customers by the end of 2019.

Liezel du Toit, Senior Director, Senior Product Owner, Maersk Line, said, “We are very excited that our collaboration with CargoSphere has allowed us to take this important step in making it easier for our customers to ship with us. They should be spending time on their business, not on updating our rates in their systems”.

The solution will offer signinficant time and cost savings. Rate management and subsequent rate dissemination will, in many cases, improve to be handled within hours whereas it can take days in the current setup. Other benefits include improved data accuracy, online access to timely rates for better decision making, faster reconciliation of invoices and faster quoting to customers for freight forwarders and Non Vessel Owning Common Carriers (NVOCCs).

Carsten Frank Olsen, Senior Director and Global Head of eCommerce at Maersk Line, said, “This move marks another step in the Maersk Line digital transformation and helps us to offer advanced, industry-leading digital solutions that improve the customer experience. Our customers require a faster and simpler way to manage freight rates. Working with CargoSphere we are pleased to be able to deliver this.”

The solution is available across all geographies in the Maersk Line, Seago Line, MCC, Safmarine and SeaLand brands. Maersk Line is looking into introducing similar solutions in other digital rate distribution platforms available in the market.