First Deliveries with the Digital Delivery Note from BVL and GS1

For the first time, digital delivery notes accompanied physical goods deliveries to the central warehouses of retail yesterday. About two weeks after the launch of the online platform Cloud4Log at the German Logistics Congress in Berlin, companies have now started live operations. The first deliveries with the paperless document arrived in the morning at dm in Waghäusel, at Rewe in Neu-Isenburg, and at Penny in Neuhausen. The shipments were initiated by Berief Food, Eckes Granini, and Nestlé on November 11.

(Bremen/Nu-Isenburg) “The digital delivery note is an innovative cooperative approach with numerous partners from industry, logistics services, and retail. This is an excellent starting point to achieve critical market penetration and establish a new industry standard,” explains Christian Bodi, Managing Director of Logistics at dm-drogerie markt. “In my long experience with premium and project work, I have never seen a project where such a large number of companies have worked together conceptually and effectively as in the development of the digital delivery note,” confirms Michael Moise, Lead ECR/EDI Management at Nestlé Germany.

A total of 19 companies have already registered for Cloud4Log to utilize the service. In addition to the mentioned partners of the first deliveries, others such as Dachser, Frosta, Hailo, and the Nagel Group are also included. Furthermore, 48 companies have expressed their intention to use the cloud solution developed by the Federal Association of Logistics (BVL) and GS1 Germany in collaboration with T-Systems and actors from industry, logistics services, and retail. “We, as REWE Group, have been involved from the very beginning, so I am pleased about the launch of the digital delivery note. Today we are taking another big step towards the digitization of logistics: We save paper. We save time. And we save ourselves from errors,” explains Birgit Heitzer, Head of Procurement Logistics & Logistics Services at Rewe. The digital delivery notes will be available for the duration of the delivery process and ten weeks thereafter. Printing, passing on, transporting, and acknowledging paper documents are thus unnecessary.

Partial Loads and General Cargo Transport Starting in 2023

And this is how Cloud4Log will proceed: In the current introduction phase, planned until April 2023, the scope of services in delivery will be gradually increased. Initially, the digital delivery note will be used for direct transports with one loading and one unloading point. From January 2023, it will also accompany partial load transports and general cargo shipments with multiple loading and unloading points. The corresponding functionalities are already available today on the online platform. Additionally, the rollout will gradually take place through further partners across the entire supply chain.

High Manual Effort with Paper

In national goods traffic, the delivery note often takes on the function of the waybill and thus fulfills the acknowledgment function in the transport contract relationship between industry and freight forwarder – unfortunately still almost always on paper. This leads to high manual efforts in the delivery and transport processes along the supply chain. Deliveries to wholesalers or distribution centers of retail are generally accompanied by delivery notes in paper form. For the food retail sector in Germany alone, this amounts to at least 20 million delivery notes per year. This results in at least 180 million sheets of paper due to multiple copies, equivalent to 1,500 trees with a diameter of 40 centimeters and a height of 25 meters. The introduction of the digital delivery note via the online platform Cloud4Log can finally put an end to the cumbersome handling of paper documents.

Low Barriers to Entry Thanks to Neutrality of Associations

The neutrality of BVL and GS1 Germany ensures that the barriers to entry are low and the service is available to participants in all industries and markets. Existing company or industry-specific island solutions for digital delivery notes can be integrated. The data is processed at Cloud4Log via the Open Telekom Cloud (OTC). The technical infrastructure and suitable front-end solution were developed by T-Systems. The collaboration with the Telekom subsidiary guarantees data storage and processing via a server operated in Germany, ensuring data protection and security according to European law.

Photo: © BVL