If you have multiple placed eBookings from the same origin going to the same destination, you can find options to join, or consolidate them, to save money and time using the eBooking consolidation feature.
Consolidating your shipments may mean you jump up a weight break resulting in the price per kilogram for your shipment being much cheaper. What’s more, this feature allows you to see just how much you’re saving before consolidating, giving you the power to decide what’s best for you.
Find out how you can use this feature by reading this article.
Firstly, after logging in to your account, click on My eBookings and then click on the Possible consolidations tab. Bear in mind that you won’t have options to consolidate shipments unless you have previously made an eBooking. To find out how to do this, read this article.
Important: the option to consolidate your shipment will only show if the eBookings have been made more than 2 days in advance of the previous shipping date.
Select the shipments you would like to consolidate by ticking the boxes to the left-hand side of each eBooking or select the box at the top to select all. Once you have selected more than one option, a new set of boxes will appear for you to choose your new consolidated shipment details.
These are Cargo ready date, Origin, Destination, and IATA code.
Important: If in the case you have two shipments from the same country but twoseparate airports that you’d like to consolidate, you can also do this. Bear in mind that as WebCargo doesn’t offer trucking, you will need to organise the delivery of the shipment to get to the origin airport so that both shipments can be put on the same flight.
If options have been selected for 2 different airports (e.g BCN/MAD) the Origin box will remain empty. You’ll need to select the airport that the consolidated shipment should depart from.
Once you’ve entered these details click on the Search flights and rates button which should show up in blue once all information has been correctly entered.
A new search box will pop up, which will show you availability to consolidate your shipments for the upcoming 6 days after the cargo ready date. Allow a couple of minutes for the system to compare rates and capacity from different carriers.
You’ll be presented with the cheapest option to consolidate your individual shipments, as well as the New total and the amount you’ll be saving if you do consolidate your shipments.
If you’re happy with the new price, click on the blue Select button with the new price.
You’ll be taken to the Review and book page, where you can see all of the new flight information and the information about which eBookings will be merged.
Bear in mind that, as stated on the review and book page, whoever created the initial eBooking will need to cancel the individual eBooking after the new eBooking has been confirmed. You can see all of the details of who made the eBooking such as the email address and name on this page. We’ll explain this in more detail later.
Once you have checked the new details, enter the AWB number of the selected airline and click Consolidate shipment. You will need to use a new AWB number and not one of the previous ones used. These can be recycled to use on other shipments.
Once consolidation has occurred, you’ll receive an on-screen message stating that you should follow the progress of the consolidation on the My eBookings tab. You’ll also receive an email confirming the new eBooking.
Cancelling your previous eBookings
In order to not have the original eBookings still processed, you’ll need to cancel them manually. In order to do this, go to the My eBookings tab and find the eBookings you need to cancel. These will be identifiable by a red exclamation mark.
Click on the eBooking that needs to be cancelled and you’ll be taken to the cancellation page. A message will show stating:
“it’s important that you cancel this eBooking as it has been consolidated. You can check the new consolidated shipment under this eBooking number: EBOOKING NUMBER”
Important: anyone with permissions can log in and cancel the individual eBookings when consolidation occurs.
To finalise the cancellation, click on Cancel eBooking. You’ll be prompted with a pop-up survey where you’ll need to give the reason for the cancellation. In this circumstance, choose eBooking consolidated.
Once you’ve cancelled your shipment, you can go back to the My eBookings section. You’ll notice that the red exclamation mark has disappeared from the original eBooking and the eBooking & tracking status has changed to Cancelled by user.
You will now need to go and cancel the remaining eBookings which show a red exclamation mark.
Clicking on the newly consolidated shipment, you’ll be able to see which shipments have been cancelled and which still need to be cancelled.
As this is a new tool, we will continue to adapt and improve it based on your feedback. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out to your account manager, start a conversation with us by clicking on the green speech bubble located to the bottom right of the screen when logged into your account, or send an email to ebooking.support@freightos.com.
Consolidation FAQs
Will it proactively notify freight forwarders about the possibility of consolidating?
No. For the time being, freight forwarders will need to go into the Possible consolidation section and look to see if they can manually consolidate the shipments. Eventually, we’ll bring in more AI to the system and will have a more intuitive automatic system.
Will the consolidation be with one airline, or across different airlines?
If you have multiple shipments with different airlines and you choose to consolidate, the final shipment will be with one airline only.
Can you use the same AWB used for the previous eBookings when consolidating?
No. You need to use a new AWB in order to make a new shipment. You’ll need to get a new AWB for the airline that has been chosen for the consolidation. The other AWBs that were not used can be recycled and used for a future shipment.