Trends 6 min
Sharing data is the future: are you ready?
The transport sector keeps developing and innovating. Before you know it, the transport world looks quite different. What is changing, and how do you prepare for it?
Looking beyond today
While a large part of the transport industry mainly focuses on the here and now, it is also good to look further ahead. After all, we are not standing still; as a sector we keep developing and innovating. So before you know it, we are a few years on and the transport world looks quite different. What has changed by then, and how do you prepare for it? We will tell you here!
More attention for the SME transport entrepreneur
Industry organisations, governments, IT suppliers and road authorities jointly developing platforms on which data is connected: for the big players in the transport industry this is the most normal thing in the world. At the same time, we see that the average small or medium-sized business still manually retypes PDF documents that come in by email and sends them to its drivers. A large part of the SME segment is still barely engaged in automation. Is that strange? Not really. Such platforms with connected data were previously anything but accessible to them. But that is changing. Because more and more partnerships are emerging that develop standards, smart use of data and IT is becoming accessible to every transport entrepreneur.
Partnerships and standards
A fine example is a logistics data platform by and for the transport sector, through which logistics data on roadworks, events, environmental zones, time windows, bridge heights and live traffic information can be found. Or consider the industry organisation DALTI, which strives for collaboration between suppliers and a single standard for data exchange so that all transport systems can connect with each other. You can compare it to a universal travel adapter. A concrete example is the Open Trip Model (OTM), with which every transport entrepreneur, small or large, can use data in their own planning software without extra steps.
Sharing data: examples
It looks as though, a few years from now, all systems will be able to connect with each other. And then only one task remains: sharing data, sharing data and sharing even more data. Sharing data is the future. Ultimately, every transport entrepreneur has a single dashboard showing all internal and external information. Think, for example, of information from a Control Tower, an on-board computer, an accounting package, traffic information or your CO2 emissions.
Meeting shippers’ expectations
Because we are continuously connected to one another through a standardised, cloud-based platform, it also becomes much easier to feed information about your delivery back to your shipper. Instead of receiving a phone call asking what time the order will be delivered, an automatic ETA notification is simply sent on your behalf. These are great developments, which large shippers in particular increasingly expect as well. Not only the consumer market, but the business market too wants real-time information about their order at their fingertips.
Prepare as a transport entrepreneur
A few years from now, logistics data will be accessible to every transport entrepreneur, and slowly but surely the importance of that data will become crystal clear too. Transport entrepreneurs gain more and more insight into how much valuable data already flows through the company and how they can make smart use of it. Because all your information is visible in a single dashboard, you can, for example, steer on your KPIs much more easily. How many drivers do you have available in period X, how many orders are running at that moment, and can you, based on this information, take on a new partnership with a shipper or not? Insight into your data gives the answer!
What can you do right now?
Now is the moment to keep a close eye on developments. You do this, for example, via social media or news websites for the transport industry. The most important thing is to have the basics in place already: an OpenTMS (Transport Management System) and an FMS (Fleet Management System). If you already use these two systems, you will be able to plug into the bigger picture much more easily later on. As soon as the time comes, your IT supplier can arrange this for you. Want to know more about this? Feel free to get in touch with us.
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