There are many black holes, not only in the universe, but worldwide. Central Europe is no exception. In this case, the black holes are warehouses. Transparency is often a foreign word, at least for outsiders who sometimes wonder why shipments cannot be found or were confused with others at freight terminals located at airports. This is especially true for those warehouses that are managed by independent ground handling service providers and not by forwarding agents or freight carriers.
Transport company, Sovereign Speed, and the data specialist, logistics.cloud, have decided to pool their efforts in order to make internal workflows visible and thus end the black hole status of
warehouses. They thoroughly scrutinized the import, export, documentation, delivery, and security processes happening in a large warehouse based on airport in Frankfurt’s CargoCity South. The
evaluation of the findings resulted in an API, allowing Sovereign to open its application’s data and functionality up to external partners, providing them with precise and instant 24/7/365
feedback on the warehouse status of their shipments. It is an additional digital service, complementing transport pre-announcements and truck loading lists, for instance. The data is stored in
the company’s cloud, accessible by its business partners. “This way, we contribute to making the supply chain more transparent,” notes Hendrik Bender, VP Group Sales, Business
Development and Marketing.
“logistics.cloud is our IT partner in this area,” Hendrik Bender
It is a neutral platform that offers front-end solutions to companies, usable by the entire logistics industry. “Most of the larger freight forwarders and quite a number of cargo airlines are
our customers, so they constantly utilize our messaging services,” explains CEO, Niko Hossain (NH) of logistics.cloud.
Analyses have shown that users of the tool significantly reduce their EDI costs, increase the speed of data exchange, and raise the efficiency of operations and handling activities. Obviously, an
efficient messaging platform, and commercially very successful, too. Niko Hossain speaks of 100% growth in sales in the current year compared to the same period in 2021.
We asked the manager a few questions:
CFG: What is the difference between your offers and those marketed by Nallian, Champ, or Dakosy, who are also very successful in the field of digital offers and solutions?
NH: Our core competence is data integration. It is now booked by well over 100 users with fast growing numbers. We offer customers a very comprehensive service package that
includes telematics solutions, life tracking, risk management solutions, etc. Unlike the companies just mentioned, we are multimodal, i.e., we offer data services for ocean and road carriers, in
addition to air freight. While our competitors focus on the optimal use of infrastructure, such as ramp access at airports, or trucking slots at seaports, we focus much more on the exchange of
data between manufacturers of goods, forwarders, and transport companies.
CFG: What about claims processing: Is this feature part of your digital service portfolio?
NH: Yes, it is. So is the involvement of an insurance company. Part of our service package is also offering the market customs clearance solutions or the use of a freight
calculator that can precisely calculate freight costs. When country-specific tariffs or new surcharges pop up somewhere, the new data is immediately incorporated into the price list so that
customers know exactly how expensive it is to transport a shipment from A to B. This applies not only to general cargo, but also to dangerous or urgent goods, for example.
Different price tags
Potential users of logistics.cloud’s services must sign a usage agreement. The price varies depending on the features required by customers. The basic package costs 5,000 euros per year, followed
by 15,000 euros, and 30,000 euros, payable for using all features offed by the company. The business is permanently scaled by big boys like CEVA, K+N, Lufthansa Cargo, and others that not only
use the messaging services offered by logistics.cloud, but recommend their business partners to join in to share and exchange information. This permanently enlarges the circle of users, the
management confirms.
Next, the company plans to internationalize its activities. “We are primarily thinking of the Scandinavian countries, but also China, where we intend to link producers of finished goods
directly with our platform,” Mr. Hossain explains.
Sovereign Speed has been cooperating with logistics.cloud for about two years. The partnership was kicked off at “HAUS61 Startup Accelerator” at Frankfurt, with Sovereign being one of the
founders. “Niko and his team provide a multitude of IT and data services tailored to our specific needs,” notes Hendrik Bender. The Sovereign executive went on to say: “Therefore, we
see no reason to invent the wheel anew by cumbersomely developing similar digital solutions inhouse.”
Heiner Siegmund
We welcome and publish comments from all authenticated users.
Write a comment