The e-Freight Multimodal e-Waybill
Tom Cane (BMT Group Ltd)
2nd e-Freight Conference, Delft
9th-10th May, 2012
Challenges: “Multimodal”
• Patchwork of liability regimes
– International conventions, national legislation, contractual
agreements, professional practices…
• Strong modal distinctions
– Liability
– Documents
• Lack of harmonisation and clarity
Barriers to efficient, flexible and sustainable
multimodal freight transport
e-Freight receives funding from the EC FP7 Sustainable Surface Transport Programme
Challenges: “Electronic”
• Still predominantly paper based
– Need for signature
– Requirement to accompany cargo
– Technology limitations:
operational environment vs. back office
• Technology mismatch:
Sophisticated electronic booking and invoicing systems
vs. Paper waybills and consignment notes
• Inefficiencies and inaccuracies
– e.g. long invoicing cycle
e-Freight receives funding from the EC FP7 Sustainable Surface Transport Programme
e-Freight Project Developments
“Standardised multimodal electronic waybill”
1. Specification for content and structure of
information
– Necessary and sufficient
– Implementation (software) independent
2. Reference implementation using e-Delivery
Infrastructure
– Business Case evaluation
e-Freight receives funding from the EC FP7 Sustainable Surface Transport Programme
Existing Paper Documents
• CMR Consignment Note (Road)
• CIM Consignment Note (Rail)
• Sea Waybills (e.g. BIMCO Non-negotiable Sea Waybill)
• Air Waybills (e.g. IATA AWB)
• FIATA Non-negotiable Multimodal Transport Waybill
• BIMCO Multimodal Transport Waybill
• House/Line Waybills (in-house waybills)
• …
e-Freight receives funding from the EC FP7 Sustainable Surface Transport Programme
Information Model
House Waybills
e-Freight receives funding from the EC FP7 Sustainable Surface Transport Programme
e-Waybill Information Model
e-Freight receives funding from the EC FP7 Sustainable Surface Transport Programme
Added Value
• Flexible support for multimodal chains
– Individual transport legs or whole chain
• Designed from “first principles”
– No bias (modal, sectoral…)
• Optional additional parties
– e.g. handling agents, warehousers
• Compatible with UBL, WCO, UN/CEFACT, UN/ECE…
– Well-structured, electronic data – not just PDF files
e-Freight receives funding from the EC FP7 Sustainable Surface Transport Programme
Bills of Lading
• Documents of Title – negotiable/tradable
• Handled through banking system
• Not originally included in project scope
But…
 Information content often identical to waybill
 Can be declared “non-negotiable”
e-Freight receives funding from the EC FP7 Sustainable Surface Transport Programme
Existing “Solutions”
• “Multimodal”
– Still need separate (paper) document for each leg
– Often, one leg has to be maritime
• “Electronic”
– PDF documents, FTP, e-mail vs. XML and Web Services
• Involvement of banks (e.g. Bolero Open4Trade platform)
• Centralised, closed access/community systems
e-Freight receives funding from the EC FP7 Sustainable Surface Transport Programme
Main Technical Requirements
• Distributed platform
• Security, authentication and privacy
• Electronic signature
• Cross-platform
• Backward compatibility
• Low cost
• Efficient and flexible information sharing
e-Freight receives funding from the EC FP7 Sustainable Surface Transport Programme
e-Freight Approach
Extend the e-Delivery Infrastructure
• Efficient information exchange infrastructure
• Robust, distributed architecture
• Security mechanisms “built in”
• “Connect once” principle
• Integration with e-Freight and other standards
e-Freight receives funding from the EC FP7 Sustainable Surface Transport Programme
A Flexible Solution
Unimodal
Multimodal
e-Waybill
(MWB)
Sea
Rail
Road
Inland
“Necessary and Sufficient”
Waterway
Multimodal
Multimodal
e-Waybill
(MWB)
MWB
Con.
Car.
1
Car.
2
…
e.g. CMR
CIM
…
e-Freight receives funding from the EC FP7 Sustainable Surface Transport Programme
e-Freight Reference Solution
e-Delivery Infrastructure
Consignor
Carrier
Create
View
Consignee
View
Sign
INVOICING
SECURITY – AUTHENTICATION – OWNERSHIP
ACCESSIBILITY–Internet
COMMUNICATION
e-Freight receives funding from the EC FP7 Sustainable Surface Transport Programme
e-Freight Reference Solution
Carrier
Carrier
Carrier
MTO / FF
Internet
e-Freight receives funding from the EC FP7 Sustainable Surface Transport Programme
Remaining Hurdles
• Liability
– multimodal liability regime
– “single European transport document”?
• Legal and cultural acceptance
– paperless environment
– electronic signatures
e-Freight receives funding from the EC FP7 Sustainable Surface Transport Programme
Impacts
• Fully integrated transport management systems
• e-Proof of Delivery
 faster invoicing time
• Integration with ITS services
 improved monitoring, automated declarations…
• Support for multimodal chains
• Harmonisation and standardisation
e-Freight receives funding from the EC FP7 Sustainable Surface Transport Programme
Thank You
Questions & Discussion
tcane@bmtmail.com
e-Freight receives funding from the EC FP7 Sustainable Surface Transport Programme