International freight forwarder Kuehne & Nagel will offer direct Internet booking through its home page for air and sea-freight services for all cargo out of Hong Kong from March 1.
Kuehne & Nagel's Asia Pacific managing director Andy Weber said the service would be extended to the mainland later.
The company had invested in the Rhythm software from I2 Technologies which enabled it to provide tracking and tracing facilities to all divisions dealing with sea and air, he said.
Kuehne & Nagel's Asia Pacific sales and marketing director Jan Lyngdam said the company's tracking and tracing service was product-related and could provide information such as collar size and stock refurbishment, unlike other products which provided purely tracking of air waybill services.
He said investment in computer systems was part of the company's overall electronic data processing strategy to link up all its offices worldwide, and would probably be the first traditional freight forwarder to do so.
To be a leading supply-chain management service provider, the company started to operate its own container freight station at Hong Kong International Distribution Centre from January 1.
The facility, which has been leased for three years, will be used for the 350,000 cubic metres of sea freight and 35,000 tonnes of air freight the company handles annually.