The proof of concept was presented by the community speakers at a press conference on October 18 at the German Logistics Congress (DLK) 2023 in Berlin. "If competitors such as Rhenus and Dachser interact via the same open source platform using eCMR, then this standard will definitely gain industry-wide acceptance," explained Professor Michael ten Hompel. Both logistics service providers tested the new eCMR platform on a real transport route from Berlin and processed the documents automatically.

The Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Open Logistics Foundation spoke on behalf of the community - together with Stefan Hohm, Chief Development Officer at Dachser, Boris Jeggle, Managing Director of Rhenus Special Delivery, Andreas Nettsträter, CEO of the Open Logistics Foundation and eCMR Working Group Leader Ingo Müller, Department Head Prototyping & Testing at Dachser.

"What began here at Fraunhofer IML in 2020 with the 'Silicon Economy' project funded by the Federal Ministry of Transport is now being put into practice as a community project by the Open Logistics Foundation," says Prof. ten Hompel happily. This community concept of open and fair cooperation between different companies, which can also be competitors in the free market, is the basis of the Dortmund-based foundation. It has been building a European open source community since 2021 - with the aim of advancing digitalization in logistics and supply chain management on the basis of open source and standardizing logistics processes through de facto standards and practicable open source software for all.

Community in focus

"A technology initiative like the Open Logistics Foundation is something special in logistics to date," says Boris Jeggle from Rhenus. "The community thrives on everyone's expertise. With our partnership-based eCMR standard, we are demonstrating that the connectivity, compatibility and interoperability of IT systems in logistics can go beyond the boundaries of a company. The digitalization of logistics chains only works across companies. Interface problems must be overcome and solutions for this should be freely available to everyone via open source."

Stefan Hohm from Dachser clarifies: "It's not just logistics service providers and IT, forwarding and shipping companies that live the community concept - market-leading eCMR platform providers also take part in the working group. True to the motto: industry-wide accepted standards for basic applications instead of isolated solutions and the constant repetition of programming routines. The Working Group produces more than just user recommendations. It actively provides program lines for a common open source standard and also demonstrates a real application scenario for the operation of a blockchain in logistics. And with great success!"

Milestone for the Open Logistics Foundation

"The German Logistics Congress 2023 is a milestone for the Open Logistics Foundation," summarizes Andreas Nettsträter, CEO of the Open Logistics Foundation. "After we announced our foundation at the DLK 2021 and promoted more collaboration in the industry at the DLK 2022, we can say in 2023 that our idea has worked. Direct market competitors have come together and are developing open source solutions at commodity level that are openly available to everyone - including non-members - via our repository. And the eCMR is the best example of this. It is precisely this community approach that is important for the broad acceptance of new technologies in the logistics industry."

The companies involved in the working group so far are: Aventeon, Cargo Ledger, Dachser, DB Schenker, DSLV, duisport, Fraunhofer IML, GS1 Germany, markant, Pionira NV, Rhenus, Trade Link, Trans follow, Veroo.