How Transparency Transforms Logistics
Henning Pottharst, Head of Global Smart Solutions Tracking and Innovation, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics
Finding out the shipment status of a B2C online order is no longer a particular challenge for people today. For almost every online retailer, it is of enormous importance to conveniently deliver this transparency to its customers.
In traditional logistics, however, the issue of transparency is different.
Disrupted supply chains and long transport times are just a few buzzwords that logistics experts have been dealing with for over two years. This is especially true with the data of the now highly fragmented supply chains, which is becoming more and more complex over time. Due to the various players in the global supply chain and their IT transport systems, it is crucial to keep track of everything.
Track-and-trace systems in logistics have been around for many years. In some areas, such as ocean freight and road freight, several specialized systems have been developed lately that provide users with quality transparency. Due to its complexity and speed, the area in which there has been no solution until recently is the air freight industry.
Because of the large number of parties involved in the air cargo industry that process shipments quickly, it has always been difficult to get a real-time overview of all shipments including upcoming delays and split shipments.
This current situation was one of the biggest challenges for an AIbased air cargo visibility platform.
Furthermore, the challenge was for us to provide the customer with a user experience that would set new standards in air freight logistics.
The already well-established Hellmann Visibility Platform from the ocean freight sector was helpful for the user experience interface. However, any experience from the ocean freight sector is only valuable if it is used to understand the next customer requirements and logistics trends.
The importance of sustainability within the air freight supply chain also influenced the development of an advanced overall system. It is important to know that each aircraft type has its own carbon footprint, which can vary greatly from aircraft to aircraft. These differences can account for up to 60% more or less Co2 for the same transport.
The choice of an airline and its associated aircraft, combined with the airline's planned routing and stopovers, has a major impact on a shipment's carbon emissions.
“In some areas, such as ocean freight and road freight, several specialized systems have been developed lately that provide users with quality transparency”
This knowledge is incorporated into the new platform so that users can easily obtain detailed shipment-level Co2 footprint information in addition to real-time shipment data and existing performance reports.
Bringing together multiple sources of information opens entirely new dimensions for evaluating supply chains from a carbon footprint perspective.
In addition, companies that want to offset their carbon footprint can now do so based on much more accurate data.
While in the past, price, performance, and freight capacity were the most important decision criteria for logistics managers, in the future, information on the expected Co2 footprint will also be considered.
Accordingly, our goal is to transform logistics by providing an informative tool that promotes transparency to logisticians so that they can meet customers’ needs in the future.
