ASIA PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION
TRANSPORTATION WORKING GROUP
FOURTEENTH MEETING – SEOUL, KOREA

OCTOBER 1998

MORE COMPETITIVE TRANSPORTATION INDUSTRY (INCLUDING
INFRASTRUCTURE) STEERING COMMITTEE
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
COMMERCIAL MESSAGES PROJECT

Submitted by Australia

September 1998

To seek agreement for the Electronic Commercial Messages project to be concluded ,with the lessons learnt and business contacts made being rolled into the new electronic commerce project funded by APEC.

BACKGROUND

The Australian Government's Maritime Transport Group and Tradegate ECA have jointly funded this project under the auspices of the APEC TPT-WG. The project has been managed by Tradegate ECA.

The primary aim of the project has been to identify, through pilot trials, the processes and preparation required to enable businesses involved in international trade and transport to trial and use harmonised EDIFACT messages in the trading chain between organisations in APEC economies.

COMMENTS

The Progress Report on the Commercial Messages Project presented at the 13^th TPT-WG Meeting in Mexico, provided a brief synopsis of the work undertaken by the companies participating in this project (Cadbury Schweppes, Murray Goulburn and BHP Transport).

Murray Goulburn has successfully trialed the electronic Export Receival Advice (ERA) with P&O Ports in Melbourne and the SANCRT/EXIT single message to the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service. Another recent success was the official launch of the electronic ERA between ANL Limited, Murray Goulburn and P&O Ports. This document facilitates the passing of export information from shipper to the stevedore and then on to the shipping company, thus eliminating paperwork in the export chain.

Cadbury Schweppes has also been successful in trialing its air consignment activity with Specific Freight in Melbourne. The Shipper’s Letter of Instruction and Invoice EDI messages have been successfully tested between Cadbury Schweppes and Specific Freight. The next step required is the exchange of EDI messages between the freight forwarder in Australia (Specific Freight) and the freight forwarder in Singapore (Skylift). It is intended that this will be followed by the Cadbury to Cadbury movement of Despatch Advice and Invoice data.

BHP is pursuing efforts to get its US agencies onto EDI trials involving bills of lading for its steel products on the Australian/West Coast USA trade. At this stage none have joined. It should be noted that BHP's documentary system covering its steel trade between Australia and New Zealand is now fully electronic using EDIFACT messages.

Even though these companies have committed a great deal of resources in developing the EDI concept, for various reasons (including the Y2K problem) each company has suspended further work on the project for the time being. However these companies have expressed a desire to pursue this project in the future.

At the Mexico meeting member economies agreed that Australia prepare a report for TPT 14 on the lessons learned from this project, as a valuable contribution to progressing the new project.

There has been a steady increase in the uptake of electronic commerce, including EDIFACT messages on a worldwide basis. It is therefore in the interest of member economies to continue their efforts to facilitate the use of electronic commerce in the transport sector.

LESSONS LEARNED

While the three Australian companies participating in the project had clearly intended to carry the proposed electronic message trials, for various reasons progress was slower than expected. In hindsight, this is not surprising given the substantial commitment and preparation businesses needed to make before being in a position to trial messages, and then deal with related problems arising from the trials. As participants were meeting their own costs it was unrealistic to expect them to move at a faster pace than permitted by their business circumstances. The project has demonstrated that the adoption of electronic commerce by commercial companies will only proceed at the pace that fits in with the priorities of the trading partners concerned.

The major lessons learnt from the project were:

• businesses proposing to participate in the new project need to be given an introductory course on the options available and commitment required for the successful implementation of electronic commerce. This has been provided for under Phase 1 of the new project

• the successful trialing of electronic messages between trading partners is an essential step in the process of implementing electronic commerce systems;

• the senior management of businesses wishing to adopt electronic commerce need to make a carefully considered commitment to allocate sufficient resources to the preparatory work needed, including the trialing of messages;

• finding businesses willing to participate in electronic message trials with trading partners in other APEC economies, needs considerable effort on the part of relevant government agencies and/or national bodies established to facilitate the adoption of electronic commerce;

• it is essential for economies wishing to participate in APEC electronic commerce projects to have a local coordinator who is provided with sufficient support (including financial) to be able to attend to the various arrangements needed at local level. This includes providing a suitable point of contact for the overall project manager and any consultants engaged to deliver services under a project, and to generally liaise with local participating businesses;

• adequate infrastructure (including telephone lines and internet facilities) are essential for the effective participation in electronic message trials.

The lessons from this project will be taken into account in the new electronic commerce project. In this regard, Phase 1 of the new project has been designed to focus entirely on the education and awareness aspects of electronic commerce. This is seen as an area in which the cooperative efforts of the TPT-WG can make a significant contribution in facilitating the uptake of electronic commerce by commercial firms. It is anticipated that Australian companies may not need to take part in Phase 1. They are however, expected to participate in the trials for Phase 2 and 3.

RECOMMENDATIONS

It is recommended that member economies agree that:

• The current limited Electronic Commercial Messages project be regarded as concluded and the lessons learnt and business contacts made be rolled into the new project funded by APEC.

This page was last updated on 10 Aug, 2006