A NEW Alaska Air Cargo IT system, called Alaska Mobile Track, allows customers to send text messages to the company with their air waybill number and receive a text response with a real-time tracking update, the company announced.

    Customers can also get a shipment's complete shipping history via text, including the time the freight was accepted at an airline freight facility and when it departed, arrived and was delivered, reported Seattle's TechFlash.

    "We designed this service and built it ourselves based on our customers' needs for receiving instant updates on time-critical shipments," said Torque Zubeck, Alaska Airlines' managing director of air cargo, in a statement. "It's another way that Alaska Airlines is using technology to benefit our cargo shippers."

    The company said the service is free for customers with unlimited texting on their phones. Additionally, customers can call its service centre with any concerns about the tracking information in the text response, as well as track their shipments on Alaska Air's Cargo website.

    Alaska has rolled out a number of mobile options for customers in that last year, including an app that lets travellers use mobile boarding passes and a FlyingSocial app that lets users look at a map populated with photos of their Facebook friends in cities that Alaska Airlines serves.

(source:http://www.shippingonline.cn/news/newsList.asp?classname=News)