eFTIbarge

Project Goals:  

The aim of the eFTIbarge project is to test an eFTI-compliant, industry-capable blockchain platform for inland navigation in a digital test field. To this end, a network of logistics service providers is to be developed that will participate in the exchange of data via the platform as part of the test field.

In addition, an open industry solution is to be implemented as an eFTI-compliant platform for the digital exchange of information at the project partner Contargo and prototypically expanded to include needs-based data evaluations and forecasts for decision support.

Objectives:

Innovative technologies such as blockchain are creating a platform of trust that more and more logistics partners around the world are joining. Until now, digital networking has often ended at the seaports, without the logistics service providers delivering and resupplying being involved and able to benefit from it. Other challenges for inland shipping are inconsistent EU-wide requirements for the acceptance of electronic freight information and a lack of standards for corresponding IT systems. Not least because of this, the exchange of information and documents in inland navigation still largely takes place in paper form. The EU regulation on the acceptance of electronic freight information (eFTI) by public authorities is intended to counteract this. Against this background, the project aims to promote the digital exchange of information in inland navigation, taking into account the eFTI regulation.

Role of the CML in eFTIbarge:

Fraunhofer CML is to develop the extension of the platform to include data evaluations and forecasts that provide logistics service providers along the maritime transport chain with needs-based decision support, for example through arrival time forecasts or shipment tracking

Project Consortium:

Contargo GmbH & Co. KG, IBM Deutschland GmbH and the Fraunhofer CML.

The project is funded by the BMVi as part of the program "Investments for the Development of Digital Test Fields on Federal Waterways" in the period from September 2021 to September 2022.