Leading freight forwarders will increasingly tailor their services to shippers' needs, surpassing benchmarks set by express cargo airlines through higher flexibility, a group of European freight forwarders says. FreightForward Europe (FFE), the group of nine major freight forwarders, said this move would be in addition to providing multi-modality, total control and full documentation services. 'This will prevent shippers from having to make costly investments in specialised communications technology,' FFE said. FFE said air freight transport would play an increasing role through long-term partnerships with both shippers and airlines. Forwarders would offer two distinct aspects of service. One would be a wide range of standardised products based on fixed systems, still being expanded and streamlined. The other would be to increase business volume, which depended on providing logistics solutions tailored to shippers' individual needs. Eighty per cent of airline business was passenger driven and freight was not a sufficient priority. 'With their focus on freight, the forwarders can help the airlines both to improve their services and to cut their costs by streamlining procedures, the ultimate benefit of which will be to the shipper,' FFE said.