beyond pt 0 23/1

How a ticket is sold, through an agent or by the airline directly, and whether the
ticket is paper or electronic, can mean the difference between paying $8.00 or $1.00
to process a ticket:
$8.00: Travel agent books, using computer reservation system
$6.00: Travel agent books direct with airline
$1.00: Customer books electronic ticket direct with airline.
Source:
Henry D, Cooke S, Montes, 1998, The Emerging Digital Economy, US Department of
Commerce 1998, p. A4-23.
Sea
The sea transport sector has been long active in e-commerce initiatives,
many started by the ACS but involving significant industry participation.
Examples include, COMPILE for customs agencies, EXIT2 and Sea Cargo
Automation for shipping lines and terminals (see section 9.2). Shipping
lines and agencies are now transmitting manifest information
electronically to Port Authorities.
9.5 External dimension
With the increase in electronic booking and lodgement systems,
including regulatory lodgements, an opportunity is created for some or
all of the administrative work in organising transport to be moved
overseas to the head office of the buying or organising company.
Likewise, Australian companies could arrange some global transport
services from Australia, using e-commerce to reduce the need for local
agents in other parts of the world.
Air passengers can check schedules, flight availability and buy fares,
without the need to contact an agent familiar with Australian services.
This may increase the number of additional domestic fares (air or land)
purchased by international travellers coming to Australia assuming those
fares are made available by the transport companies to overseas customers).
Key points
While there are some obvious threats to freight services from electronic delivery, it
seems more likely that there will be many offsetting opportunities in the delivery of
Internet-purchased physical products and transport of people. Meanwhile,
improvements in supply chains will generate further efficiencies in the sector that
may lead to decreased demand for labour. Additional value may also be built into
customer relationships.
When looking at quantitative analysis of the sector a number of direct changes have
been factored in to the study:
– transport will obtain a small benefit in terms of reduction in wholesale and retail
input margins disintermediated through business-to-business e-commerce;
– it is expected that greater use of e-commerce will stimulate direct labour saving
efficiencies in the transport sector;
– sectors and households that deal with the transport sector will also obtain
savings in terms of time (i.e. labour) saved through more efficient purchase and
tracking of goods/people in transit; and
– at this time it is assumed that this sector will not face greater international
competition or experience a significant boost in exports from e-commerce.
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