A year in review: Growth and giving back
I am really proud of what PayCargo has achieved in 2019 and it has been an exciting time for our company since I joined as President and CEO of The Americas.
For 2019 we are on track once again to double our earnings and profitability, as we have done for the past three years.
Our business has also grown this year and we have added an additional 7,067 payer and 1,385 Vendor users’ so far; an average of 642 payer users a month and 125 Vendor users a month. We now have a total of 18,678 payer users and 4,615 vendor users.
We have also given back to the community, contributing a quarter of a million dollars to charitable causes across 2019.
This year has also seen us transition our platform to a lightweight cloud-based micro-services platform that allows PayCargo to be open and highly customizable. The result is that we can respond to clients’ needs faster than ever before.
Other changes have seen us add credit cards as an additional form of payment. We partnered with BlueSnap to deliver this functionality.
We are also now using real-time data for business reporting and internal dashboards. This insight is enabling us to add additional value to our users – proactively detecting potential problems and resolving them before they become an issue for users, better understanding of market trends and needs.
In 2019 we expanded our executive team to meet growth, and along with me taking on the role of President and CEO of The Americas, Eduardo Del Riego has moved to Global CEO while other key appointments have also been made.
This year also saw us move to a new larger HQ in downtown Coral Gables and our overall staff headcount has doubled as our management and operational support teams continue to grow.
We are also implementing tools and procedures to better manage the strong growth, including a new salesforce for both customer service and sales.
A big focus for us during the course of the last 12 months has been to open collaboration with all industry stakeholders and this has seen integrations with new partners such as Unisys and Accelya.
There has been a strong focus on API integrations with these and other key payers and vendors.
PayCargo has integrated with the Kale Air Cargo Community via API and signed to be the official partner with the Atlanta Air Cargo Community System – the first air cargo community to be established in the US.
This year also saw the company sign a strategic partnership with the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Another key part of our strategy for 2019, was to play a more active role in terms of industry thought leadership and this has been achieved via conference speaking at air cargo events such as Air Cargo Americas and IATA’s World Cargo Symposium.
We have also ramped up our communications and interaction with industry stakeholders via social media and blogs and joined the Florida Blockchain Foundation and the Air Forwarders Association.
At PayCargo we are looking forward to expanding the business further in 2020, as we continue to engage with industry stakeholders and help the air cargo industry develop to meet future demands.