IATA Cargo Agents do not have to pay extra fees for participating in any CASS program. Export air freight normally reaches airlines via cargo agents. The agents collect freight charges from shippers for payment over to the carriers. Certain carriers require that agents report sales made on their behalf. Other carriers may produce invoices to their agents for these sales.
Agents work with many carriers and carriers accept consignments from many agents.
Each carrier receives a report from, or prepares an invoice to, each agent individually. This multiplicity of invoices and reports must be checked and consolidated and payments have to be made individually. The situation is an administrative burden to carriers and agents alike. Carriers submit a copy or an electronic record of each air waybill issued during a reporting period to the Settlement Office for processing. From that data the Settlement Office produces standard invoices.