ARTHUR WELTER TRANSPORTS PIONEER OF E-CMR (electronic consignment note)

Camille Gira, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Infrastructure has signed the first electronic consignment note for a road transport by Arthur Welter on behalf of Cargolux between the airports of Luxembourg and Amsterdam, Schiphol.

The signature took place during the annual Luxembourg Supply Chain Day at the Cargo Center of LuxairCARGO at Luxembourg Airport for a road transport operated by Arthur Welter on behalf of Cargolux Airlines International between the airports of Luxembourg and Amsterdam, Schiphol.

As of March this year, Luxembourg authorises the use of digital consignment notes for road transport after the adoption of the UNECE e-CMR protocol addition and also participates in a Benelux e-CMR project.

“By using electronic consignment notes, logistics companies and their customers can significantly reduce administrative and environmental costs that relate to the 400 million e-CMR that are issued on an annual basis within the European Community”, states Secretary of State Camille Gira. “In practice, 166.000 trees, 15.000 pallets and 600 trucks of paper CMR can be saved. Assuming a saving of 4,5 euro for each e-CMR, this would mean an efficiency gain of 1,8 billion of euro for the European Union.”

Patrick Silverio, Manager Special Services Cargo, LuxairCARGO highlights the benefits “In 2017, the Cargo Center of the airport operated by LuxairCARGO registered about 200.000 CMR. Document treatment, signing, stamping and archiving are definitively a time-consuming factor, which with the e-CMR will be highly reduced”.

The specialist trucking company Arthur Welter is also looking forward to the change: “In practice, transport orders are received from our customers in a digital data format and transmitted to the driver. Consigner, driver and consignees use their smart phones for secure digital signatures. The e-CMR solution of DashDoc, currently establishing its office in Luxembourg, stores all data in a central database that can be accessed by each party.” states René Gloden, Chief Administration Officer, Arthur Welter.

For Ronny Claes (Manager Projects and Business Process Management Global Logistics, Cargolux) the switch is a move forward. “The digital integration of road transport information within our systems will lead to enhanced transparency and visibility for our customers. An important competitive advantage, not to be neglected”, says Mr. Claes. A position which is echoed by Malik Zeniti, Director, Cluster for logistics Luxembourg: “This is an important step for the Luxembourg hub allowing a stronger data integration of records driving digitization in the transport and supply chain sector. It positions the Benelux at the head of Europe facilitating movements of goods with electronic consignment notes thus accelerating their acceptance throughout Europe”.