The PayCargo Team—(l to r), Eduardo Del Riego, CEO; Thomas Vieweg, Vice President Business Development; Leo Hanon, Executive Vice President and Juan Dieppa, COO

It is no secret in 2018 that the Air Cargo industry is a key enabler of the global economy and has grown to 35% of global trade by value.
     PayCargo, a proven successful multimodal technology company, established in 2009 by industry entrepreneurs and funded by key family offices and investors, has been very successful in disrupting the transportation industry by revolutionizing urgent payment processes to facilitate expediting cargo flows.
     The company was initially focused on the maritime sector, and then continued with rail, warehouse, air cargo handlers and most recently aviation, with specific programs for inbound air cargo fees.

Pay Cargo In The Air

     Eduardo del Riego, PayCargo CEO, identifying the dynamic contribution that the PayCargo platform could provide towards IATA’s cargo strategy and industry priorities, felt it made good business sense to pursue a strategic partnership with Cargo Network Services Corporation (CNS), IATA’s US Cargo subsidiary. Thus, in 2015 discussions were initiated with CNS to investigate collaboration opportunities to better serve the airlines and their industry partners, with a specific focus to help IATA and CNS with their objective to modernize industry processes, including the shift away from cost prohibitive payment processes such as checks, vouchers, cash, and credit cards.

All About Network

     PayCargo with its wide network of payers, and CNS with its mission to assist the airlines and their cargo business partners with improved technology and paperless processes, proved to be a natural fit, leading to a long-term Partnership Agreement that was signed in November 2017 to roll out an enhanced version of the PayCargo Urgent Payment System, as a new co-branded PayCargo-CNS urgent payment portal, which was launched at the end of 2017.

Leo The Lion

     In an attempt to further strengthen the partnership, PayCargo hired Leo Hanon, who served as the Head of IATA’s Americas Service Center in Miami, to lead the new PayCargo CNS program. Leo joined PayCargo as Executive Vice President in February 2017.

Lionel Onboard

     Subsequent to Leo’s appointment, PayCargo Chairman Larry Brandt, invited Lionel van der Walt, who previously served as CNS’ President, to join the PayCargo Board. Larry noted that this was another strategic move to strengthen PayCargo’s ability to better understand and serve their new partners (IATA and CNS) as well as the broader air cargo sector. He went on to explain that Lionel would replace a board member that was stepping down to run PayCargo’s European activities, and that with his knowledge, experience and network, Lionel’s appointment was a win-win for PayCargo, IATA and CNS.

CNS Partnership

     It seems CNS has found themselves a great partner in PayCargo. No doubt this has been a bold move to consolidate a strong team of entrepreneurs and business visionaries that are now aiming to revolutionize the air cargo industry by delivering an innovative, secured and cost-effective urgent payment solutions that provides significant measurable benefits for all air cargo value chain stakeholders. This is good news for an industry that always appears to be plagued by thin margins and continuous cost challenges.
Geoffrey