SIMIC

AUSTRALIA's Qantas Freight shippers are asking the airline to waive fees to offset losses from an IT meltdown that has caused delays for three weeks, reports New York FreightWaves.

Qantas switched to a cloud-based cargo booking system. It quickly went awry, leaving customers clueless about where their shipments were.



Another headache cropped up over the weekend when a piece of loading equipment malfunctioned at Sydney airport and slowed cargo movements.



The Qantas Airways cargo division says it has fixed the software glitches that undermined a major systems integration and made a big dent in the shipping container backlog at Australian airports.



The entire operation is expected to be back to normal on Saturday. By that time the disruption will have lasted a month.



Shippers aren't satisfied with Qantas' response and are asking for a credit, saying they shouldn't have to pay cargo processing fees when service was so poor for so long.



The Freight & Trade Alliance (FTA), which represents logistics and trade service providers in Australia, "proposed to Qantas Freight that consideration be given to waiving terminal fees for the affected period as a limited form of compensation and show of good faith," said Tom Jensen, head of international freight and logistics.



Member companies are reporting that many customers are withholding payment of invoices due to severe delays, up to several days in many cases.



Qantas has not responded yet to the FTA's proposal but is withholding invoices while it works to reconcile charges for freight forwarders. The airline is not charging customers storage fees for stranded cargo during the ordeal.



Qantas Freight operates a dozen cargo jets, including three Airbus A321 converted freighters that fly for Australia Post, four older Boeing 737 converted freighters, and two medium widebodies (an A330-200 and one 767), in addition to managing freight carried on Qantas passenger aircraft.



The cargo division of Qantas Airways switched to a new cloud-based cargo management and booking system on September 24. It quickly began experiencing problems when the system cutover didn't go smoothly, leaving the airline and customers clueless about where shipments were located in the network.