On delivery to the retailer, the delivery bill often acts as a receipt, confirming to the seller that the delivery has been duly received. Paper receipts are usually returned to the shipper by the logistics service provider's drivers.

Back in 2020, the German Logistics Association (BVL) and GS1 Germany launched the "Digital Delivery Note" project to finally digitally optimize the mostly manual and time-consuming processes. Following a successful proof of concept in 2021 with 20 well-known companies from the consumer goods industry, retail and logistics, the partners are now moving on to implementation. The contract was signed today at the Log 2022 retail logistics congress in Cologne.

In the first stage, all participants will exchange delivery bills and later other transport documents digitally via a central cloud platform. The aim is to develop and launch the platform in close cooperation with industry, trade and logistics by the end of 2022.

"The special feature of the envisaged solution is its neutrality and the community approach, which takes into account the interests of all parties involved in the process," says Dr. Martin Schwemmer, Managing Director of BVL. Open, standardized interfaces enable consignors, consignees and logistics service providers to establish a non-discriminatory technical connection. They can use existing application providers if they add the corresponding functionalities to their systems. In this way, digital transport documents can be exchanged between different supply chain partners via a central instance and enriched with information using a standardized process. "This collaboratively developed approach is intended to eliminate the time-consuming paperwork in everyday logistics and therefore holds great potential for faster, more cost-effective processes for the benefit of all parties involved," explains Thomas Fell, Lead GS1 Germany. In addition, this solution offers opportunities for scaling in other sectors, markets and countries as well as for other applications.