The movement of goods depends on a complex web of logistics, technology, and, critically, payments. However, the industry continues to struggle with outdated payment systems that can cause costly delays. Cross-border transactions, often involving multiple currencies and intermediaries, can take days to process, leaving freight forwarders and airlines grappling with inefficiency, high fees, and a lack of transparency.

For an industry that thrives on speed, relying on slow, traditional payment methods poses a significant barrier to growth and operational efficiency. The demand for a secure, fast, and transparent payment solution has never been greater.

“Moving money, especially globally, is complex and governed by strict regulations. Fintechs leverage data to make decisions and create new models that connect buyers and sellers,” Olivier Veyrac, Senior Vice President of CargoWALLET at CargoAi, said.

“For instance, many of us have used peer-to-peer payments in the consumer space to split cab fares or restaurant bills. While business-to-business payments are more complex, the same principles of visibility and connectivity apply. We can expect more features along these lines and a growing network of freight professionals on CargoWALLET. The increasing use of artificial intelligence will enhance risk mitigation and operational efficiency in money flows, benefiting our customers.”

One of the key drivers behind the success of CargoWALLET is its ability to tackle an essential problem in the freight industry—the outdated and inefficient payment processes.

The key driver behind CargoWALLET’s rapid adoption has been its ability to address a critical pain point in the freight industry—the need for instant fund verification to ensure that all operators are paid and that goods keep moving. Current methods are complex, expensive, slow, and sometimes even inaccessible to certain countries and freight forwarders. CargoWALLET eliminates these barriers.”

This innovation is particularly important for freight professionals who depend on timely payments to avoid delays in shipping goods across borders. CargoWALLET has been designed to facilitate these transactions with speed and transparency, cutting down processing times from days to mere seconds.

CargoWALLET’s ability to support payments in over 47 currencies and operate across 150 countries highlights the platform’s global reach. However, integrating local payment methods in so many regions posed significant challenges.

“Moving money across multiple countries is complex and depends on a network of payment operators offering local methods such as bank transfers, card payments, or real-time payments. We provide these options to our customers through multi-currency wallets in all the countries that our solution supports.”

Despite these challenges, CargoWALLET delivers a seamless experience for users, allowing them to hold multiple currencies, exchange them in real-time at competitive rates, and process payments swiftly. This is especially valuable for companies dealing with cross-border transactions where traditional payment methods often fail to keep pace with the speed of modern logistics.

A standout feature of CargoWALLET is its ability to drastically reduce the time it takes to process payments.

“CargoWALLET allows freight professionals to hold multiple currencies and exchange them in real-time at competitive rates. The platform enables users to request payments from customers, pay suppliers, or top up their wallets using local payment methods. This streamlined process significantly speeds up international transactions.”

This instant payment capability is a major leap forward for the air cargo industry, where cross-border payments have traditionally been slow and inefficient. By integrating with existing systems used by freight forwarders, CargoWALLET enhances the overall efficiency of transactions, creating a faster and more reliable payment process.

CargoWALLET’s integration with Transport Management Systems (TMS) is another key factor in its success. By connecting payments with booking and invoicing systems, CargoWALLET simplifies the payment process for users.

“Payments are typically linked to bookings or invoicing, so integrating these functionalities with other systems is a natural fit. CargoAi, through its award-winning CargoCONNECT APIs, already collaborates with leading digital companies such as Magaya and Freightify. Additionally, the CargoMART standalone platform allows freight forwarders to book and track airfreight. Adding payment functionalities is a logical next step.”

This ability to integrate seamlessly with existing industry platforms allows freight forwarders and other users to manage both logistics and payments from a single interface, improving operational efficiency and eliminating unnecessary steps.

With over 5,000 airlines, freight forwarders, and logistics service providers already using CargoWALLET, feedback from early adopters has been overwhelmingly positive.

“CargoWALLET serves as a hub for various freight actors to facilitate payments between each other, ensuring fast, complete, and reliable transactions. Feedback consistently highlights the demand for simpler and more transparent payment solutions. The vision behind CargoWALLET is to provide freight professionals with a secure and transparent payment network.”

“CargoAI has established strong relationships with major industry players, including TMSs, airlines, freight forwarders, GHAs, or GSAs. We are collaborating with them to grow CargoWALLET and expand our payment infrastructure, guided by their feedback on the most critical payment pain points.”

“The increasing use of artificial intelligence will enhance risk mitigation and operational efficiency in money flows, benefiting our customers.”

Veyrac acknowledged that some obstacles remain, particularly around transparency in the payment journey.

“One major obstacle is the lack of transparency, which includes issues such as insufficient guarantees between payers and payees, unclear visibility in payments, hidden fees, fluctuating exchange rates, and challenges in reconciliations and payment speed,” he said.

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