Interview with Bernhard Schmaldienst, Director Operations at TRANSPOREON
Bernhard Schmaldienst is a well-experienced leader and digitalisation expert driving transformation in the logistics industry. At Transporeon his focus is to deliver market-leading digital solutions in the areas of market intelligence, freight procurement and freight audit for shippers, carriers and logistics service providers.
European road transport has faced very volatile market situations in recent times – what is the state of the industry in 2023?
Overall, we are still in a multi-crisis environment, with increased volatility becoming our new normal we have to adapt to. Over the last two years, the cost of land transport increased by 20% with a strong demand and tight capacity situation. By the end of 2020, the market softened a little bit with spot rates dropping significantly below contract rates. We are still in a situation where capacity and demand are not in sync.
Considering the key factors influencing market prices in a trend scenario for 2023, we should see less dynamic developments in market prices, though recent years have more often than not proven predictions wrong, so it remains top of the management agenda to prioritise actions resulting from logistics megatrends like digitalisation, networks and sustainability.
You participate in the panel – The Digital Revolution in European Trucking – How digital is road transportation in reality?
We have seen significant progress in regards to digitalisation over the last decade, but there is still a long way to go, with great opportunities ahead of us. So far, a lot of attention and efforts have been put towards digital and more efficient processes from an individual company perspective. This is where a lot of companies are strong (first level digitalisation). Transportation as a network business where multiple parties interact physically and electronically with each other doesn’t end at one’s own doorway, though. Therefore, even bigger potential for optimisation can be achieved from processes where multiple companies interact. This is where digital solutions and platforms like Transporeon come into play, and where the bigger portion of efficiency gains is yet to unfold.
What is the TANSPOREON contribution – where do you think you are making a difference and bringing value with digitalisation?
As a fully integrated platform, we deliver value at all stages of the transportation process, but for 2022 If I had to pick a few highlights from our product innovations I would like to start with our Market Insights. This product is an important game-changer for our industry. It is a unique product offering neutral and statistical relevant market benchmark for prices in the European land transport with daily 100.000+ FTL transports analysed. McKinsey & Company in their recent study “A balancing act: How trucking companies can find the optimal spot/contract mix” used our Market Insights data to conclude the key success factors in pricing. Companies of all sizes who embody a data-driven approach and incorporate market data in their processes will drive the automation of our industry and remove friction for all involved parties.
Our Sustainability portfolio also deserves a mention. With Carbon Visibility, we introduced a dashboard designed to help shippers and carriers measure and benchmark their green gas emissions from transports with precision, transparency and efficiency. This tool will answer the European Commision’s CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) which comes into force in 2023. This is just the starting point of a long journey together with our customers.
With Sustainability solutions becoming more relevant – which developments do you see in this space?
With our responsibility to tackle climate change, we promote sustainability as the third factor next to price and quality of service when it comes to operating transportation networks.
Last year we introduced Carbon Visibility to transparently track your emissions baseline, comply with EC regulations and enable comparison against industry peers. So the initial focus was on identifying where companies are on an individual level.
The next step is to act and work towards improving your emissions/CO2 footprint based on the data and transparency created. To enable this, we will launch our Carbon Intelligence solution later this year, where we’ve also teamed up with great partners to transition towards greener supply chains.
What other innovations should people be excited about in 2023?
Marketplace.
Procurement and tender platforms are state-of-the-art products already in use for many years. This year, our journey begins to take transportation procurement to the next level. Here we provide a marketplace that simplifies the process of finding counter parties and striking fair agreements for logistics services. Our platform allows users to easily search the true market price and ideal partner, while eliminating many of the tedious steps required in a traditional RFQ creation process. With our platform, you can easily find the right partner and get the best deals for your logistics needs.
We are constantly innovating, so follow us on social media or subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates!
TRANSPOREON NEXT 28-30 March 2023
Discover brand new potential to develop your business with automated freight operations, tools with collaboration at their core, and real-time data and sustainability insights that enable smarter decision-making.
TRANSPOREON NEXT will reveal our very latest innovations and new technologies plus market-leading opportunities for shippers and carriers determined to thrive whatever the circumstances.
Register now: https://www.transporeon.com/en/community/events/tp-next
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TRANSPOREON is the leading transportation management platform provider. Our global multimodal platform with 1300+ shippers and 145.000+ carries exists to bring transportation in sync with the world with three core ingredients: collaboration, automation and real-time insights. We execute 220,000 transactions per day on our platform and process around €48bn in freight spend per year. Our leading Transportation Management Platform is fully equipped to meet modern supply chain needs, enabling transparent supply chains and efficient processes powered by AI and machine learning. Our modular tools and services cover market intelligence and benchmarking, freight procurement and rate management, transport execution, dock scheduling and yard management, real time tracking and visibility, freight settlement, and payment and audit. All of this is fully deployable globally for continent-spanning multi-modal coverage that can handle any load.
For more information visit www.transporeon.com.