Freight forwarding is an important part of the logistics industry in Hong Kong. The freight
forwarding industry in Hong Kong accounted for over 20% of the GDP of the Hong Kong
economy in 2002 (Census and Statistics Department, 2003). Within the shipping logistics
chain, a freight forwarder is an agent intermediary which arranges for carrier and commercial
document, insurance, licensing requirements, visas, customs clearance, and ocean, air, and/or
surface transportation (Murphy 1991). The shipping logistics chain involves a number of
parties. Basically, it includes shippers, local freight forwarders, co-loaders, carriers, overseas
freight forwarding agents and consignees. With the existing practice of the Hong Kong freight
forwarding industry, the shipping process is rather inefficient and the shipping procedure still
highly depends on human effort. Also, information exchange among all parties in the shipping
logistics chain has not been standardized and there is a problem in data exchange among
them.