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American President Lines (APL) customers will be able to download their bills of lading directly from the World Wide Web (Internet) by the end of this year, an executive, says.

  Diane Silver, APL's vice-president of information strategy, said this facility, already being used in North America, Latin America and Canada since June, would be extended to Asia as part of a phased development.

  'Definitely, it is a high priority for us to be able to bring this process to the Asian market,' Gil Roeder, APL's marketing communications executive, said.

   The facility would be beneficial in a regional hub like Hong Kong where there was a high receptivity to the Internet, he said.

   Ms Silver said initially the company had used an imaging system with a check box to gauge customer response and the perceived need in the global marketplace for facilities to allow for accessing information through the internet.

   As 90 per cent of customers' response was positive to this kind of service, APL decided to create its own Web site in August last year, making the company the first shipping line in the world to do so, she said.

   APL's site, at www.apl.com, includes interactive review of vessel and stacktrain schedules and options for requesting a booking, printing a bill of lading and tracing a shipment to its destination.

   Log-on options provide faster access to tracing, booking and other transactions.

   APL also provides information about its financial reports, up-to-the-minute news releases, a description of the worldwide APL network, and profiles of specific services and markets.

   Ms Silver said people using the Internet were looking at a neutralised technology environment without any need to know what kind of hardware or software was being used by others.

   In the past, people had to possess the same kind of technology to be able to communicate with each other and now that had changed tremendously, she said.

  'The Internet offers a simplified access to information and standardises how we look and use information,' she added.

   Ms Silver said APL was now looking at including other kind of information such as feeder services information and intra-Asia schedules on its site as well.

    'We will also include rate request information through the Internet,' she said.

   The company is also looking at providing customers with an updated comprehensive report about its cargo status, once a day.

   Mr Roeder said APL was able to come up within a relatively short time with all the systems, while addressing the important issue of security.

   Irene Woo, APL's marketing process manager for Hong Kong and the South China region, said customers who registered to use APL's services would be given an ID number which would enable them to gain tracing access to the system.

  A built-in security system would only allow a person to access information if they keyed in the correct names of shipper, consignee and notified persons.



APL bills of lading online by year-end