Project description
Smart platform for transport management
E-commerce is boosting international trade shipping, but it is also creating new problems for transport companies. Increasing environmental regulations, traffic congestion and scarcity in truck drivers result in profit restriction. A combination of the services offered by the shipping and transport sectors with digital data sharing will provide real-time information. This is emerging as the perfect solution for the management of fast-moving consumer goods. However, existing digital solutions focus on specific parts of the market and don’t fulfil the need for an integrated collaboration between multiple stakeholders. The EU-funded Simacan LINK project will further develop a smart data exchange and collaboration platform that has already radically restructured the Dutch market of transport management. Traffic information is added to transport operation data, allowing real-time management during transport.
Objective
Shippers and transport companies face an increasingly challenging society. Individuals and businesses expect to get goods
delivered faster, more flexible, on time and at low cost. At the same time, the sector is confronted with increasing emission
restrictions, congestion, a lack of truck drivers and low profits despite a strong growth in volume driven by e-commerce.
Realtime collaboration between shippers and carriers and digital data sharing holds the key to solving these challenges in a
growing market. Current available digital tooling however is often optimized for dedicated parts of the supply chain, lacking
interoperability to integrate and communicate within the heterogeneous environment of transport companies, retailers, third
parties and customers.
Simacan solves these problems by developing an intelligent data exchange and collaboration platform. Transport operation
data is enriched with high quality traffic information, enabling automated, realtime management by exception and
communication during transport execution. It allows for integration with existing logistics systems like planning systems, onboard
units, driver apps and freight sensors and creates a joint view and intervention options for all stakeholders in the
transport execution process.
The Simacan solution revolutionized the Dutch market for transport management of fast-moving consumer goods. It gained
market traction with leading retailers and transport companies reaching a market share of 55% in the Dutch Grocery Store
supply chain and 80% in Dutch Home Grocery Shopping in the last four years.
This project will bring the Simacan platform from a successful, national product, to a commercially scalable Europe-wide
Connected Transport platform worth the name Simacan LINK. With the support of several leading retailers, transport
companies and technology partners, Simacan aims to value its research and development over the past years and bring
Europe’s freight management to the next level.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2Coordinator
3825 BT AMERSFOORT
Netherlands
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.