Unisys Corporation, along with Air Canada Cargo, Northwest Airlines Cargo, and United Airlines Cargo, announce that Cargo Portal Services (CPS) is now live and ready for business. All freight forwarders are welcome to use the Internet-based portal that allows them to more easily book and manage shipments through their lifecycles on these carriers, while reducing transaction costs.

In mid-December, selected freight forwarders used the service to make the first test bookings directly onto the operational systems of the partner carriers. Since then, all final system and site details have been developed and tested further for quality control. The launch carriers are currently introducing CPS to their forwarder customers around the world and demonstrating its ease of use. CPS is available to forwarders free-of-charge.

"Now is the time for forwarders to solve the 'chicken-or-the-egg' riddle, and thus determine whether the air cargo industry can move forward," said Jim Friedel, chairman of the CPS carrier board and president of Northwest Airlines Cargo. "The cargo execs at other large carriers are prepared to come on board with CPS, but they are waiting to see how quickly forwarders adopt it. To coin a phrase, if forwarders use CPS, many more carriers will join."

Interested forwarders should contact their Air Canada, Northwest or United sales representative and visit www.cargoportalservices.com

Unisys is a worldwide information technology services and solutions company. Their people combine expertise in systems integration, outsourcing, infrastructure, server technology and consulting with precision thinking and relentless execution to help clients, in more than 100 countries, quickly and efficiently achieve competitive advantage. For more information, visit www.unisys.com.

Cargo Portal Services provides:

Neutral multi-carrier booking facilities, in-line with agreed rates and allotments;

-Cargo 2000 pro-active shipment event management and tracking in-line with industry best practice; and

-Computer system-to-system communications for better integration between forwarders and carriers.

-CPS is free to forwarders, is secure because information is confidential to each registered user, and is global as it links directly with the carriers' central systems.

-Founded by Air Canada Cargo, Northwest Airlines Cargo, United Airlines Cargo and Unisys, CPS is open to all carriers and forwarders on a neutral basis.